nineseveneight book reviews

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

2009-09-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

I'm going to break the format, guys.
I'm gonna do it.
Don't even try to stop me.
I'm too excited.

See, Going Bovine is incredible. Incredible.
It's better than the also-amazing Gemma Doyle Trilogy.
I swear upon all that is good and true that I am not kidding.

See, there's this kid, Cameron. He has mad cow disease. He's going to die. Up until now, Cameron's life has been a painstaking study in apathy. He's a C+ student with a fondness for pot, who rather likes the idea of wandering into another person's life, and staying there. Neither joy nor wonder has entered the equation since that one time at Disney World. He was five. Eleven years later, as his mind begins to spongify and die on him, he starts to learn what it means to live.

It starts with Dulcie, an atypical angel (hallucination?) who tells him that there's a cure held by a mysterious doctor, but he must quest for it. Also, he has to save the world while he's at it.

Now, Cameron's pissed about the whole dying thing, so he asks himself a question, and that question is "Why the hell not?"

That one question sets him off on a cross-country journey with feathers and personal ads as his maps and a video-gaming dwarf with a wicked 'fro and a Norse lawn gnome as his stalwart companions. They meet physicists and monsters, drag queens and jazz legends. They get lost. They get drunk. They find necessary parts. They fall in love.

But the beeps of hospital monitors are never far off. So is it real? Does it matter?

And dudes, it is so frickin' good. I don't even know if I can convey how much I loved this book.
First off, it's about so much, but not in a convoluted, I-am-trying-too-hard-to-say-everything-ever sort of way. It's about important things. Little things. Things that we think are little but turn out important.

It's about love. Life. Dying. Mythology¹. Happiness. True Things. Popcorn.

Plus it's funny. Really, laugh-out-(very)-loud funny. Libba Bray manages to do this thing with her writing where she makes you want to pee your pants laughing (or, you know, just annoy the crap out of your roommate) one paragraph, then makes you cry with the aforementioned "True Things" the next. More than a few times, it's the same paragraph².

Finally--and this is something I'm officially uberimpressed with--Libba Bray can write from the perspective of a sixteen-year-old male better than any other female author I can think of. Never once did I lose the sense of Cameron's guy-ness. It was awesome. So yeah. Many, many compliments to the chef.

So basically, I loved it. Hands down my favorite book of 2009.

Do I even need to say it?

Going bovine, and yours...

1.There's a reference to Iphigenia. It practically made me die of delight.
2. I even dog-eared a bunch of pages due to the beauty/hilarity of passages. I never dog-ear my pages. It usually makes me angry. But this time, I kind of had to.

Lisa Mantchev...

2009-09-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

... rocks! First of all, she wrote a fabulous book (which we reviewed recently). And then she granted us an interview. See? Rockin'.

To recap our format: The first part = nine normal questions, the second = seven fill-in-the-blank questions and the third = a list of eight favorite YA books, for your reading pleasure.

So, without further ado, we present our interview with the lovely Lisa Mantchev.

Yours,

Part the First
1. If you could play any role in any production during any period in history what would it be, when would it be, and why?
I'd love to be in the original production of the Peter Pan musical. Or My Fair Lady. Or...

2. Of Bertie's hair-coloring adventures, which is your favorite?
That's a tie between the Cobalt Flame of the original book and the ones that haven't happened yet. I'm considering colors for the third book right now!

3. Have you any advice for aspiring authors/actors?
Treat the writing like a job... put your backside in the chair, log the hours, behave professionally both online and off.

4. Who's your favorite Disney Princess?
Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She always had her nose stuck in a book.

5. So one morning you're taking a stroll in your neighborhood, right? It's pretty cool. The sun is shining, the birds are singing... it seems that nothing could go wrong. Until you trip on a crack in the sidewalk and land in a bush. When you get up and brush yourself off, you realize you're not on the street anymore. In fact, it looks as though you've stepped into a different time. You've stumbled upon a secret garden and it is now, inexplicably, dusk. Straight ahead, there is a crumbling wishing well. A wren alights on your shoulder and tells you that the well will deliver a letter--written by you--to your teenage self. What will you write in the letter?
"Dear Lisa,

When you get to college, there's a chance you'll start writing a lot of thesis papers and drop the creative writing for several years.

DON'T.

Love,

You In The Future"

6. What was your favorite book when you were a teenager?
I read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander until the cover fell off. And no, I didn't drop it in the bathtub. Repeatedly. Stop looking at me like that! *flees*

7. Ask yourself the question you wish we'd ask you. Then answer it.
What's your favorite holiday? Oh, I'm so glad I asked me that. Halloween, definitely. It's all about the costuming, the candy, walking in the dark with flashlights, pumpkin cake, hot apple cider... I love Christmas, too, but that holiday comes wrapped up with more stress. Halloween is just about the joy, the glee, the CHOCOLATE.

8. The works of William Shakespeare obviously play a huge part in Eyes Like Stars. What is your favorite of his plays? Bertie's favorite?
I personally love Much Ado About Nothing (hence Bertie's full name of Beatrice) and Taming of the Shrew. Bertie's favorite... probably A Midsummer Night's Dream, considering who she spends her time with...

9. Have Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed got anything to say to us?

Peaseblossom: The answer is forty-two!

Moth: No! The answer is always "chocolate cupcakes!"

Mustardseed: (shoving him) That was my line!
Cobweb: I, for one, am outraged by the total lack of manners being displayed here today...

(The others sit upon him and stuff tiny, dirty socks in his little piehole.)

Part the Second
1. If I were a faerie, I would... sparkle all the time instead of just in the sunlight.
2. If I could be anything other than a writer, I would be... Queen of Quite A Lot.
3. If I ruled the world... dessert would be mandatory.
4. Unicorns are awesome because... they are transportation and impaling device all in one.
6. High school was... better in retrospect than I thought it was at the time.
7. Yesterday, I... painted my garden fence. And part of my arm. Also, my knee. And the sidewalk.

Part the Third
List your eight favorite YA books.

1. The Shoes series by Noel Streatfeild

2. The Looking Glass Wars series by Frank Beddor

3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

4. A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

5. Anything by Terry Pratchett

6. Flora Segunda by Ysabeau Wilce

7. Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

8. A Most Improper Magick (forthcoming in 2010) by Stephanie Burgis

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

2009-08-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

BEWARE! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE FIRST BOOK IN THE SERIES, THE HUNGER GAMES, WHICH EVERYONE SHOULD GO READ RIGHT NOW. OR ELSE. THAT IS THE EXTENT TO WHICH I WILL THREATEN YOU. BUT SERIOUSLY. READ IT.

Katniss Everdeen is back, and in more danger than ever. On the surface, everything is as it should be--better, even. By winning the Hunger Games, she and her co-victor, Peeta Mellark, have guaranteed themselves the comfortable lives of celebrities, as well as security for their families. But Kat’s move with the poisonous berries undermined the rules of the Games and struck a blow to the very foundations of Panem. This shift, despite the Capitol’s efforts to cover it up, has incited a stirring throughout the districts. Something that could shape up to be rebellion.

Suddenly, the story has become much larger than personal survival: Katniss and her Mockingjay pin are national symbols. To some, she is face of coming revolution. To the rich and clueless who live in the Capitol, she is a romantic heroine, her Mockingjay a fashion statement. To President Snow, she is wild card he never counted on, a threat that must be tamed. Kat must convince all of Panem that her last act in the Arena was motivated purely by deep love for Peeta, or everyone she cares about will suffer.

But after all the horrors she has witnessed--in the Arena, in the Capitol, and in the mines back home--how can she possibly be a puppet for the President? As she and Peeta take the traditional Victory Tour and wisps of rebellion begin to rise, Kat must choose between protecting those she loves and taking part in the fight for freedom.

Once again, Suzanne Collins has crafted a thrilling work that I was helpless to put down. Having not read The Hunger Games in a while, I was shocked anew by the sheer brutality of the Capitol, the Games, and the underlying system. All the adventure, action, romance, and excitement of the first book have carried over here, with plenty surprising turns along the way. I wouldn’t say that Catching Fire is quite as amazing as its predecessor but, for the most part, it measures up. It isn’t as if the quality of story and writing aren’t as good. On the contrary, Collins continues to be well-grounded in the world of Panem and quite well-acquainted with her characters. It’s just that everything that transpires feels a bit like a bridge between the first and the third books, the setup to lead us to the grand finale. I felt the same about Pullman’s The Subtle Knife: the book is worthwhile in its own right, but is more of a tool for the author to lead us where we’re to be taken than anything else. But then, you can’t have a magic trick without the setup.

All in all, Catching Fire is a well-crafted and thoroughly enjoyable continuation of Kat’s story and I definitely can’t wait to read what comes next.

Catching Fire comes out on the First of September. That's only one week, guys.

Put it at the top of your pile.

Catching fire and, as always, yours...

PS: Ta very much to CTU's finest for allowing me to borrow the ARC.

Eyes Like Stars: Théâtre Illuminata, Act I by Lisa Mantchev

2009-08-08T10:56:00.000-07:00

All her life--as far as she can remember--Beatrice Shakespeare Smith has lived with the players of Théâtre Illuminata, where every play ever written resides. The actors not only play their roles, they are their roles. Hamlet's Ophelia drowns herself each night, and all it takes is a word into headset to travel from Castle Elsinore to the streets of London to Neverland and back again. Each player is bound to the Théâtre by the Book, a magical tome that holds the scripts. Yes, all the scripts.

But Bertie (whom we have previously referred to as Beatrice) has no role to play and no family to speak of. Countless times she has written and re-written the tale of how she came be there, but has not yet found the truth. For all intents and purposes, the Théâtre is her home, and home to everyone she holds dear. Everyone she just might lose.

You see, Bertie (along with the rambunctious Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, and Peaseblossom, who are her constant companions) has caused more trouble than the Theater Manager is willing to tolerate. If she doesn't find a way to make herself indispensable, she will be cast out. So she sets out to find her calling, but soon encounters problems much bigger than being kicked out. Problems that jeopardize the entire Théâtre and all of its inhabitants.

When I picked up this book, I was anxious. It had such potential to be great. Really great. Then again, it had equal potential to be absolutely terrible. To write a world that exists in a theater and do justice to all the iconic characters within... To create something so complex and keep it from being overdone or from falling apart... It takes strong literary talent and a whole hell of a lot of creativity. Lisa Mantchev, thankfully, has both. Because Eyes Like Stars: Théâtre Illuminata, Act I is really great. I mean, really. I would kill to live in this book. It's this insane collision of everything that I adore: theater, Shakespeare, magic, fairies, and more, all wrapped up in a shiny, well-written package and topped with exciting cover art. Not to mention seamlessly interwoven romance¹, wit, humor, and danger.

I approve.

Enthusiastic, sated, and most fondly yours...

1. I mean, who can resist a love triangle involving a dashing pirate and a sexy air spirit? Not I, my friends.

It was inevitable.

2009-08-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

Justine Larbalestier's Liar has a new cover:

And it isn't offensive at all, guys!
Unless you dislike green lettering, or something.
A triumph over evil, or at least over silly and insensitive blundering.

(We're assuming you know of the controversy, because, honestly, who doesn't? But if you've been hiding under a rock for a while, you can go to Every YA Blog Ever to get a summary, and probably an opinion.)

How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson

2009-06-23T14:42:00.000-07:00

This book was described in an email from the publicist as "Juno meets Gossip Girl". After reading it, I can tell you that that statement is possibly the most egregious misrepresentation of a book that I have ever heard, in line with those who call The Catcher in the Rye "whiny".
How to Buy a Love of Reading is so far from the self-conscious hipsterizing of Juno¹ or the self-absorbed materialism of Gossip Girl that I can't even begin to imagine where the comparison came from, other than the mind of someone who is desperately trying to appeal to teenagers but who does not, for the most part, understand said teenagers.
How to Buy a Love of Reading is brilliant, if occasionally confusing—an odd sort of meta-novel told from shifting points of view, about the stories we tell, both about other people and about ourselves. It's beautiful, it's unique, it's all kinds of fantastic in ways I can't completely describe.
What it isn't, however, is YA. Though it's about teenagers (if only partly), everything about the way that it's written places it firmly and completely in the Land of Adult Fiction.
But, you know what? Read it anyway. You won't regret it.

Top of the pile.

Knowing that this review is short, but hoping that you'll understand that that's because there are some books that have to be read instead of described, and yours,

1. Don't get your pages in a bunch, guys—I liked Juno.

Bandwagon-jumping is our favorite sport.

2009-06-22T23:34:00.000-07:00

We have a twitter, darlings. Follow us. Just not, you know. Home.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

2009-06-22T22:39:00.000-07:00

This is a Sarah Dessen book, so let's talk formula:
THE GIRL: Auden
THE PROBLEM: Insomnia and an inability to have fun and socialize like a normal teenager.
CAUSED BY: Overbearing parents' bitter divorce and the subsequent pressure, from both her mother and herself, to be supremely academic, resulting in a lack of any sort of childhood.
THE BOY: Eli
THE PROBLEM: Insomnia and not riding bikes competitively anymore because of TRAUMA.
CAUSED BY: The death-by-car-crash of Eli's best friend and bike-riding-partner-in-crime, Abe.
THE SETTING: That town with the beach house from The Truth About Forever, where Keeping the Moon was set.

Let's be honest here: The Truth About Forever is the best book that Sarah Dessen has ever written, with This Lullaby coming in a close second. While Along for the Ride tops neither of the aforementioned books, it comes in miles ahead of last year's supremely disappointing Lock and Key.
Auden and Eli's relationship is uncontrived and interesting, and though Sarah Dessen always keeps her hand deep in the Cookie Jar of Teenage Angst, she manages to stay away from the cloying butterscotchy melodrama so beloved of her authorial kin.
I don't have mountains of opinions to bestow upon you regarding this book. If you've read any Sarah Dessen book, you have, in most respects, already read Along for the Ride. It's moderately cute, passably well-written, fairly engaging, and other half-hearted, vaguely appreciative nouns, modified by adjectives that all mean "mediocre", which is what Along for the Ride is, particularly considering what Sarah Dessen is capable of.¹
Middle of the pile.

Kind of bored, sorry she took so long to write this review, and yours,
Eli

1. See above RE: The Truth About Forever

Okay, so, I lied.

2009-06-22T22:05:00.000-07:00

A little bit.
Sorry.

On the plus side, Rae and I graduated from high school on the 12th!

Now I'm going to go write that review.
No, really, I am.

Yours,
Eli

The Near Future

2009-06-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Hello, darlings. Did you miss us?
Of course you did.
Here are our upcoming reviews, and I know that we're not lying to you this time,¹ because I'm going to write one right after I post this. FOR REAL, GUYS.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

How to Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson

I'm sure you're all filled with boundless anticipation, so I'm going to go write that review. Really, I am. Because I love you. All of you.³

Yours,
Eli

1 Not that we EVER EVER lie to you, particularly about things we say we are going to write and then never do.²
2 Or podcasts we say we are going to record and then never do.
3 Particularly people who read the footnotes.

Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr

2009-05-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

*Warning! Contains spoilers from the first two books. Which you should read. Now.*
Seth Morgan is in love with the Summer Queen--who is known to most as Aislinn--and she loves him. Which is cool, right? Well, not exactly. There are a few problems. Number One: Ash is always busy with court happenings... and her guards will not stop following him around. Number Two: Though Ash loves Seth, and is in love with him, her feelings for Keenan go beyond friendship. And as summer approaches, the summer monarchs find it more and more difficult to resist the pull between them. Number Three: Ash is a faerie, eternal. Seth is mortal. He is fragile compared to those faeries who would do him harm, and someday, he will die. On top of that, Bananach (of War and Chaos) plans to use him as a pawn in her little war games.

Fun.

So, here's the deal. At first, tragically--but in all honesty--I didn't like Fragile Eternity. As in, I put it down for a couple of weeks after I read the first couple of chapters. Mainly because I kept seeing a bunch of Twilight parallels... which just. Wasn't. Okay. Seriously. The Twilight ~~Series~~ *ahem* Saga had more than enough immortal/mortal relationship drama for me. In this scenario Ash=Edward Cullen and Seth=Bella Swan. Ew. The combination of Keenan/Aislinn sexual tension and general relationship problems with all the characters kept the plot from moving along in an interesting manner.

It just didn't draw me in like Marr's first two books did. So I put it down for a month or so. Like you do.

But then (and this is a good but), it got way (way, way) better. Approximately halfway through things started happening. Exciting/cool/interesting things that kept me hooked until the highly frustrating and rather ambiguous cliffhanger-type end. Still, though. The way better-ness of the second half was not quite enough to bring the book back up to the top/near-top of the pile status of its predecessors. Alas.

The Verdict: Near the Bottom of the Pile. Really.

Wishing Fragile Eternity had had some rope, a Swiss Army Knife, and some Twilight-Syndrome Repellent¹ with which to salvage itself, disappointed, and yours...

So you know how Rae put Fragile Eternity down for a couple of weeks after she read the first couple of chapters?
Well, so did I. But then I never picked it up again. The book was utterly and tragically boring, and I just couldn't bring myself to care.

Disappointed, but mostly just sort of apathetic, and also, as always, yours,

1. Just imagine how incredibly useful that would be. Any time you passed a rabid fangirl with a picture of Robert Pattinson's face tattooed on her arm you could spray her with the stuff, give her information about tattoo removal, recommend a good book, and send her on her merry way. Best plan ever.

Being Nikki by Meg Cabot

2009-05-10T18:42:00.000-07:00

The always-prolific Meg Cabot has delivered yet another semi-addictive chick-lit parfait.¹ ~~Em Watts Repeats Herself A Lot~~ Being Nikki is the second installment in the Airhead series, and it meanders quite a bit more than the first (you can read our review here). At times I lost track of what was going on—which is strange, because not all that much was going on. Though there was definitely a plot, the main text of the book consisted mostly of the main character, Em Watts, agonizing over everything in minute detail. It seemed like, at times, Meg Cabot forgot that she had already made a certain point, and so she made it again, making Em's thoughts strangely circular and utterly annoying.²
And, though she has big problems (her brain was transplanted into someone else's body, for example, and her possibly-murderous employer has her under surveillance 24/7) the tone of the book somehow makes her sound like just another 16-year-old chick-lit protagonist whining about trivialities.
This is my main problem with Meg Cabot. Though she is (in my opinion) a pretty okay writer, and though her books are inexplicably addictive, I consistently want to gouge her main characters' eyes out because they WILL NOT SHUT UP. They worry constantly about idiotic things, they jump to nonsensical conclusions, and most of all, every single one of them seems at times to be immeasurably stupid. I have a suspicion that all of these character ~~flaws~~ traits are only there to move the plot forward—often a Meg Cabot book would have no conflict at all if the protagonist weren't so mind-bogglingly blind to everything that is going on around her. Though the Airhead books don't fall prey to this as much as, say, the Princess Diaries books do, they are still unfortunate victims.
~~Help! I'm Trapped in a Supermodel's Body~~ Being Nikki is a fun read, if you like chick lit and/or Meg Cabot and/or whining and stupidity, but not if you like sane and/or sensible main characters.
Put it near the bottom of your pile.

Not agonizing, not running in inexplicable mental circles, not jumping to ludicrous conclusions, and yours,
Eli

I will never read this book. Well, maybe if you paid me.

Yours,
Rae

1. I'm not saying the book is made out delicious delicious granola. I just couldn't think of a noun that worked in this sentence so I, er, picked one at random. You can feel free to go read another blog now.
2. Oh god, that was almost alliteration. I am so sorry.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

2009-04-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

"Opening The Forest of Hands and Teeth is like cracking Pandora's box: a blur of darkness and a precious bit of hope pour our." --Melissa Marr

"Dark and sexy and scary. Only one of the Unconsecrated could put this book down."--Justine Larbalestier

"...elegantly written from title to last line."--Scott Westerfeld

"You've never complained about a book this much in your entire life."--My Mom

When I saw this title at my local indie bookstore I was super duper excited. I'd heard great things. Awesome authors had praised it highly... And yet it was monumentally disappointing. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's talk about the plot.

Life for Mary and those around her is one of constant fear. Fenced inside of her tiny village in the aftermath of The Return (insert ominous music here), her life defined by the death that lurks just outside her door, Mary dreams. She dreams of finding true love (rather more easily said than done in a place where marriage is about commitment and continuation, not love). Even more than that, though, she dreams that someday, despite the stern edicts of the Sisterhood and the threat of the Unconsecrated, she will find a way to escape the village within the Forest of Hands and Teeth and find the vast, neverending expanse of water--known as the ocean--that her mother always told her about.

Then, on a day like any other, Mary's mother gets Infected, shattering her fragile existence. Turned away by her brother and spurned by the boy who had said he would court her, she is thrust into the hands of the Sisterhood. It is there, serving a God in whom she does not believe, that Mary falls in love, finds out a thing or two about the Outside, and learns horrifying secrets about her village and its past.

Essentially, it's a post-apocalyptic zombie book. With some love shapes thrown in. Just for fun.

Now on to the, shall we say, numerous problems I had with this book. Where oh where shall I start? I think I'll go list-mode on this thing.

It has the same problem that Dollhouse has. As in, eight episodes into the series they have a "special event" episode. As in, they don't take nearly enough time developing the world/the characters/the status quo. Ryan's writing gave me next to nothing to care about. I found the protagonist shallow and uninteresting and the world more flat than round. The whole time I was reading I wasn't even attached enough to care when Mary's loved ones got eaten/beheaded/hurt. I wasn't creeped out or happy or sad throughout the whole thing. I hate feeling apathetic about a book.
Repetitive. It's like Ryan realized that she hadn't given quite enough detail to her world and so decided that maybe we'd think she did if she said things a couple of times over.
I could see each plot twist from ten miles away. In the rain. Despite my decidedly less-than-perfect vision.
There was a lot of "OMGZ I love this person wait no maybe not (hey other guy, how you doin'? *eyebrow wiggle*) wait yes I do but does he love me? Yep (and so does that other guy), but I don't actually love him enough and OH NOES! this tragic thing happened but oh well there's always the ocean if it really exists which it HAS to and..." from the protagonist.
And all of her brushes with death were pretty much the same.
And the book reminded me of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (alternate title [rejected cause it would have killed the appeal]: "One of the Worst Movies Rae Will Ever See" [It's pretty much a bad knockoff of Running out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix (Which, as I recall, totally rocked.)]) except with zombies instead of pig-wolf monsters that are really the village elders.
This one's kind of a spoiler but whatever... THEY NEVER EXPLAIN THE ZOMBIES!
The end sucked eggs and I'm afraid there's going to be a sequel.

I wish I had better things to say about this book. Really, I do. I mean, there were a few good parts... some good lines... and, er, stuff. I could see the feminist undertones it was trying to have, and the statements about society it was trying to make. Overall, though, I found little to redeem it. Sorry, everyone who liked it.

Please don't kill me *wince* but I have to put it at the bottom of the pile.

Disappointed-ly, scathingly, sorrily yours...

PS: If anybody cares to enlighten me about the greatness of this book, be my guest. I'm interested to see why people liked it. And I would dearly love to be wrong.

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

2009-03-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

"I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the library aid who hides in Fantasy.
I am the circus freak encased in beeswax.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame"
- Wintergirls, page 19 (ARC)

This is Lia, who defines herself by the numbers on the scale and the voice in her head that repeats stupiduglyfatbitch over and over. Her best friend died alone in a hotel room and she cannot help but blame herself. The only thing that alleviates the pain is when she feels empty enough to float away.

Beautiful, poetic, and raw, Wintergirls tells the story of a real girl¹—Lia—who is more person than problem. Though her struggles with anorexia and the death of her best friend are the central conflicts of the story, they are not the only thing going on. Anderson does an excellent job of conveying the gravity of Lia's situation, without towering over her (and the reader). It is not a sermon, and Anderson isn't preaching. Rather, she's telling us a story; a sad, troubling, beautiful story. Perhaps the thing that I love most about this book is that it strays into the realm of magical realism, a genre that I am truly unable to resist.

Now, I'm usually not so into books about teenagers with ISSUES. I mean, sure. We do have issues. But I'm talking about ISSUES—like, "I'm a bulimic, sexually abused, promiscuous cutter who has multiple personality disorder and a propensity for writing awkward poetry in funny shapes" (more commonly known as Identical by Ellen Hopkins). They're just a little ridiculous. It's as though issues are the only way some authors feel like they can break that really tough barrier between the angsty teenaged portion of the population and themselves. All that being said, I loved Wintergirls, which does fall under the "issue book" umbrella.

Top of the pile.

Yours,

I don't know when I first read Laurie Halse Anderson's bestselling novel Speak, but I remember that I was blown away. For those of you looking for another Speak, Wintergirls is not it. But that's kind of like comparing Casablanca to Live Free or Die Hard—the fact that one is amazing doesn't mean the other isn't good.² And Wintergirls is good—great, even. It offered a new look into anorexia, characterizing it not as a superficial-yet-extreme desire to be thin-and-therefore-beautiful, but as the serious illness that it is.
Also, you might not like this book if you're squeamish—there is a lot of talk of internal organs and such.

Top of the pile.

Wanting you to go see Casablanca if you haven't, and to read Speak if you haven't and also, as always, yours,

¹"Real girl" in the sense of "well-imagined and realistic". Not as in "human being who is a female and exists outside of the narrative reality." Just so we're clear.
²The "amazing" in this particular analogy is Casablanca. But I hope you knew that. Also, if you think that Live Free or Die Hard isn't good, then you weren't paying attention to the part where Bruce Willis drives a truck up a broken freeway WITH THE POWER OF HIS MIND. Or the part where he DESTROYS A HELICOPTER BY THROWING A CAR AT IT.

Wintergirls comes out on March 19^th, a day also known as "today". Go buy it! From your local independent bookstore! Because that's where you get all of your books, right? Right?

Minireviews: Eva Ibbotson

2009-03-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

Back when I was a young, wide-eyed Eli, one who ventured regularly into the middle-grade section of my local library, ¹ I fell deeply and irrevocably in love with Eva Ibbotson. Her children's books are perfection incarnate, with characters that fit within the bounds of good and evil without being two-dimensional, and they always, always have a happy ending—a perfect ending, in fact, not saccharine or unbelievable. An ending in which the Bad Guys are suitable punished (but never more or less than they should be) and the Good Guys live Happily Ever After. Actual Happily Ever After, too, not a ride into the sunset with a prince who didn't exist until five minutes before the end.
So imagine my immeasurable² joy when I discovered that Speak was rereleasing some adult books Eva Ibbotson wrote in the 80s as YA titles. These are romance novels, but don't be alarmed—they aren't bodice-rippers, but nor are they silly and insipid. They're... you know when, in movies with bad special effects, sometimes a character will open some sort of Magic Book and suddenly light will burst forth from its pages? These books are like that. Only, you know, metaphorically, because I don't know how one would go about reading a book that blinds one every time one looks at it.
Moving on.
There are four books out right now, and a fifth on the way. Here are some minireviews, because we love you, and also because we love sticking words together like kabobs, or possibly legos.³

A Countess Below Stairs tells the story of Anna Grazinsky, a Russian Countess displaced by the first World War. Penniless, her family flees to England, and Anna takes up work as a maid in the house of the young Earl of Westerholme, recently returned from the war with his beautiful fiancée Muriel. Complications, as always, ensue.
A Countess Below Stairs is beautifully written—Muriel is exactly the right amount of evil, in a deliciously scheming, sweet/nasty way. Every character is perfect and wonderful. This book will make you dance. Or at least jump about like an idiot.
Probably my favorite of the four.

20-year-old Ruth Berger is living in Vienna with her parents and her fiancé when the Nazis invade and they are forced to flee. All manage to leave the country—except Ruth, who is left stranded in occupied Vienna with nowhere to turn.
Enter Quinton Somerville, a professor and friend of the family. Quinn is an English citizen, and he marries Ruth to get her out of the country.
They plan to keep their marriage a secret and annul it as soon as possible, but when Ruth enrolls in college and becomes Quinn's student—well, needless to say, things go rather awry.
The Morning Gift is superb. Eva Ibbotson's writing is as lyrical and eccentrically amazing as always, and she manages to perfectly blend Viennese passion and creativity with British practicality.

Set in the Austrian countryside, A Song for Summer tells the story of Ellen, a girl raised by three aging suffragette aunts ("In a way they were born to be aunts," Ibbotson tells the reader in the first line). Though brought up to be a pillar of feminism and the emancipated woman, set to take her place as the first woman to do some important thing or another, Ellen's interests—and talents—lie elsewhere. And so, after a brief and rather miserable stint in University, Ellen enrolls in the Lucy Hatton School of Cookery and Household Management, graduates summa cum laude, and embarks to Austria to take up the post of house mother at an eccentric boarding school.
There she meets Marek, the groundskeeper with a secret past, as well as quite a few children who are very much in need of love and cleanliness.
I like A Song for Summer slightly less than A Countess Below Stairs or The Morning Gift. The characters are still wonderful—Eva Ibbotson has a talent for characters that other authors might kill for—but the plot was not quite as well-paced as the others, progressing slowly with short, sometimes jarring bursts of speed.
I did, however, learn the word defenestrate⁴ from this book, something for which I shall be eternally grateful.

A Company of Swans is probably my least favorite of the four books, but that does not in any way mean that it isn't good.
Harriet Morton is a young English ballerina in 1912 Cambridge when she flees her oppressive father's house and joins a ballet company which is going to Manaus, the beautiful Amazonian city with its ludicrously wealthy rubber barons and a newly built opera house. In Manaus she meets Rom, one of the aforementioned ludicrously wealthy rubber barons.
The reason, I think, that I like this book the least is that Harriet, the protagonist, is not as fleshed out as the other three protagonists. However, there is a point in the novel where someone remarks that Harriet has Natasha's ears, which is the kind of brilliant characterization that only Eva Ibbotson can do. ("But Tolstoy doesn't describe her ears," replies a character, to which the answer is, "I don't need Tolstoy to tell me what her ears were like.")
In addition, it seemed to me that not much happened. Ibbotson often incorporates into her novels a sense that everything is hurtling together, and will collide at exactly the wrong moment and cause everything to go terribly wrong before it goes right. But the collision in A Company of Swans came too late, and did not last long enough—things were put right with far too much ease.

All in all, though, these books go at the top of the pile, each and every one of them.

Yours,
Eli

1. Now I only go there because it has the best seats. MY CHILDHOOD IS LOST.
2. Actually, if I had to guess, I'd say it was about 5.96 kilograms.
3. The lego simile is probably more apt, considering that a kabob is on a stick, whereas the word minireview is not on a stick.
4. A verb meaning "to throw someone out of a window."

The Excitement Continues!

2009-02-25T19:18:00.000-08:00

ARCs That We Have Recently Received And Are Excited About So You Should Expect Reviews Sometime In The Near Future Depending On Your Definition Of The Word "Near"
(ATWHRRAAEASYSERSITNFDOYDOTWN)

Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott

We like a Elizabeth Scott quite a bit. Eli was pretty into Bloom. Rae reviewed Living Dead Girl here.

Huzzah and crumpets galore!

PS: Scroll down for a review of What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

2009-02-25T16:17:00.000-08:00

Oh man. I read this book a while ago... and then didn't review it. Story of my life.
But now I'm back (and better than ever![?]) from the land of mucho mucho rehearsals that eat my time like Otto eats goldfish.* Mercilessly. Alas, I may not be here for long, but I shall grace you all with my reviewing presence for the time being.

Evie Spooner lives with a normal family in a normal house in a normal town. Like most fifteen year old girls, she wants to grow up gorgeous and do it quickly, and is constantly dreaming of the day that she'll be able to fill out a sweater. Now, Evie's stepfather, Joe, has always been a good guy, but he's been acting a little strangely ever since he got back from fighting in the war. They don't really talk about it. One day, Joe decides that the family will road trip to Florida for an extended vacation. Just like that. And so, Evie, Joe, and Beverly (Evie's blonde bombshell of a mother) pile into the car and set off.

The family vacation seems like it's going to be anything but polka-dots and moonbeams for Evie. That is, until she meets the handsome, charming and rather older Peter Coleridge, an ex-GI who was in the service with Joe. Evie falls in love with Peter (of course), and from that point on is desperate to trade her adolescence for lipstick and cigarettes and movie-star glamour. Because, you know, that is totally what happens when you grow up.

Nothing is as it seems, however, and soon Evie is entangled in a net of lies that threatens to topple everything she's ever known.

Well-written and well-grounded in the 1940s setting**, What I Saw and How I Lied is quite a worthwhile read. It's humorous, romantic, exciting and believable. Evie is an engaging heroine, who--like many teenagers--often does the wrong/stupid/"Are you kidding me?" thing. Though I didn't find her terribly likable, I enjoyed following her on her journey and was rather satisfied with the change she ultimately underwent. I was hooked from the very beginning and pretty much devoured it.

As most of you know, WISaHIL won the National Book Award for 2008. And yeah, it's a good book. Quite good. But I expected a lot more from it, seeing as it beat out The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks , which I think should have won. That might just be me, though. Well, and Eli (right?).

All in all (as I said before): A good book that I would put near the top of the pile, were I to read it again.

Yours...

*Everybody who understands that reference (Not you, Eli.) shall win a prize TBD. It might end up just being my undying affection, though. So don't get too excited.
**I've heard people say that it reminds them of a Film Noir in book form, but it didn't come across that way to me.

Just one this time.

2009-02-18T18:30:00.000-08:00

ARCs That We Have Recently Received And Are Excited About So You Should Expect Reviews Sometime In The Near Future Depending On Your Definition Of The Word "Near"^*
(ATWHRRAAEASYSERSITNFDOYDOTWN)

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

A note: Last time on ATWHRRAAEASYSERSITNFDOYDOTWN, Medeia mentioned her difficulty with the pronunciation of excessively long acronyms. Though I cannot give guidance in all cases, for this particular one I would suggest something along the lines of at-wir-aah-eezee-sehr-sitin-ff-doy-dot-win.

A Humble Request

2009-02-17T19:12:00.001-08:00

Oh YA gods, you mighty and glorious beings, as you look down upon this humble and insignificant blogger from the vast palaces of your otherworldly kingdom, hear my plea: find some way to get me to New York from March 16-22.

Please. It is all I want in this cruel and unyielding world. I beseech you, Oh YA gods, mightiest of the mighty, smile upon me. Else I shall be desolate, inconsolable, utterly bereft of hope and light. There will be no more rainbows or witty comments about character development. I shall lie prostrate on my bedroom floor, able only to gasp out the occasional snarky comment about Twilight, my head cushioned on unread ARCs, my prone form blanketed with the shredded remains of Paper Towns and the entire Uglies trilogy.

The horror, the terrible, unspeakable horror of that inevitable day. Save me, YA gods. You are my only hope.

Your humble servant,
Eli

JUST ONE MORE THING (PRESUMABLY)

2009-02-01T16:52:00.000-08:00

Also, footnotes have title text now.*
Mouse over to read; that way you don't have to scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE POST and then LOSE YOUR PLACE and have to SEARCH FOR IT FOR HOURS UPON END, but we still get to keep our precious footnotes.

Introducing a new segment:

2009-02-01T16:41:00.000-08:00

ARCs That We Have Recently Received And Are Excited About So You Should Expect Reviews Sometime In The Near Future Depending On Your Definition Of The Word "Near"¹
(ATWHRRAAEASYSERSITNFDOYDOTWN)

Being Nikki by Meg Cabot
Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr

Sponsored by the Titles That Are Longer Than The Actual Post Foundation of America.

1. Note: This doesn't include all ARCs or upcoming reviews, just special ones. The cool kids of ARCs, we might say. If we said that sort of thing. Which we don't.

A Few Bloggerly Things

2009-02-01T15:54:00.000-08:00

Somebody beat us to the punch... there's a new YA podcast called The Read Carpet, put together by Adele of Persnickety Snark and featuring some of our favorite bloggers, so go forth and listen. We're sure that it's much more organized than anything we ~~could~~ will cobble together.

Also, Reviewer X has a contest for the release of The Dust of 100 Dogs. Lots of prizes and such.

Love is Hell

2009-01-10T10:50:00.000-08:00

Love is Hell is the follow-up to the hideously-named short story anthology Prom Nights from Hell, though with different authors and, in case you didn't guess, a different theme. Five authors (Laurie Faria Stolarz, Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier, Gabrielle Zevin, and Melissa Marr) have contributed supernatural love stories, to varying degrees of success. Let's get started, shall we?

Sleeping with the Spirit by Larie Faria Stolarz
Girl moves into haunted house and begins having dreams about a boy. Girl realizes boy is a ghost. Girl and boy embark on strange and badly-paced romance. Ghost Boy helps girl deal with pain from sister dying. Girl helps Ghost Boy move on. Fin.
Why they chose to begin the book with this story is beyond me. It is by far the worst of the five—boringly written, oddly paced, and entirely unconvincing (Girl goes from being scared of Ghost Boy to loving him in the space of about five nanoseconds). Sleeping with the Spirit almost put me to sleep, and I don't usually do puns, so you know I'm serious.
Bottom of the pile.

Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld
Set, unsurprisingly (at least if you've read anything else by Scott Westerfeld), in a future world reminiscent of the one from Feed by MT Anderson but without the creepy distopian flavoring. Stupid Perfect World is the story of two teenagers taking a "Scarcity" class in which they learn how their ancestors lived. For their final project, each student must choose to do something like their ancestors did, whether it's having a cold or only using physical transportation (instead of teleportation, of course). Maria decides to suspend her hormonal balancers, and Kieran tries this oldfangled thing called "sleep".
Stupid Perfect World is a great story, probably my favorite of the five. But I'd rather it was a book than a story. I wanted to see the world and characters fleshed out more, and I wanted to see the dark side of things-- there was a lot of creepy stuff that wasn't really dealt with. (I mean, hormone balancers?) There's a darker side to the world in Stupid Perfect World that was left unexplored, and I wanted to see it.¹
Near the top of the pile.

Thinner than Water by Justine Larbalestier
Jeannie lives in a village that rejects modernity in favor of the traditions of the past. Jeannie, however, wants to go to the city to become a doctor. In the meantime, she must "handfast"—a sort of trial marriage—to one of the boys in the village. What unfolds is a story of superstition, love, and faeries.
Thinner than Water is a lovely story, but better in concept than in execution. The story should have been more haunting, and Jeannie should have been more interesting, but instead the story is flat, with a wonderful plot but mediocre writing. Okay, well, good writing, but not great writing. It's worth reading, but it could have been much better.
Middle of the pile.

Fan Fictions by Gabrielle Zevin
I won't tell you what this one's about, because it's the kind of story where you really don't find out until the end, but suffice to say that it's a) quite good, and b) very relevant to these Twilight-saturated times. Creepy, mysterious, and very intriguing. Gabrielle Zevin is one of those authors that have really interesting ideas and who can execute them with competence, a surprisingly rare combination.
Near the top of the pile.

Love Struck by Melissa Marr
A selchie chooses his mate, but she wants nothing to do with him. Various complications ensue.
I love Melissa Marr, but I'm not a huge fan of this story. It felt like a novel that had been drastically cut down to fit into 40 pages, and I ended up feeling sorry for the poor thing. The plot was strangely constructed and minimal, while the characters were barely fleshed out. However, Melissa Marr is still a great writer, which salvages the story, if only a bit.
Middle of the pile.

In Love is Hell, we find five short stories by people accustomed to writing novels, and it shows. Every single one of these stories could, and often should, have been a full-length book. Five good ideas had by five good writers have been turned into five mediocre stories.

The final verdict: put it in the middle of your pile.

Disappointedly yours,
Eli

Other Reviews:
Teen Book Review

1. Basically, what I'm saying is that I want Scott Westerfeld to write the Uglies trilogy again. Then again, don't we all?

Oh? Nine? Really?

2009-01-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

A lot happened for us in 2008, most prominently (at least in this context) that nineseveneight tumbled its way into existence in late June. At about same time, our local bookstore, Cody's, closed forever. We helped organize teen author events at Cody's, and we spent almost all of our free time there, so I think both our hearts are still a little bit broken over its closing.
Enough of that--on to happier subjects! We have a lot planned for nineseveneight in 2009, including a thing called "actually being able to spend time writing more reviews because college applications are done". In addition to that most lofty and ambitious goal, we're going to try to start a nineseveneight podcast that will talk about YA in general--books, authors, the community, trash talk about other reviewers.¹ There's a slight chance that it may sort of devolve into Eli And Rae Talking About Whatever They Feel Like Talking About, but since we're fabulously entertaining people, we're sure you won't mind.²
Thank you to everyone who reads nineseveneight... we think you're great (and not just because you listen to our opinions).

Yours, as always,
Eli & Rae

1. Not really. Well, except for Steph. But no one else.
2. That was a joke, guys.

Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

2008-12-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

Let it Snow by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle is a collection of three interconnected holiday-themed short stories. I'm not usually one for holiday themes of any kind, but I think I might make an exception in this case.
This book is delightful and full of CHEER, which is, you know, good. In addition to being JOLLY and SNOW-FILLED and other CHRISTMAS-oriented things, it's also delightfully quirky and fun. Maybe a little too quirky and fun-- it rather seems like it's trying too hard, to be honest. Many of the jokes/wittiness in the stories (particularly the ones by Maureen Johnson and John Green), while cute, fell flat. They didn't seem genuine-- like the authors took one of those giant turkey injectors and said, NOW I WILL INJECT SOME AWESOMENESS INTO MY STORY.¹ The only problem being, of course, that genuine awesome is uninjectable.

I say put it near the top of your pile, and also buy it for your friends, family members, enemies, and pets for the nondenominational holiday of your choice.

1. The turkey injector, however, fits in nicely with the HOLIDAY THEME.

CHEER-FILLED, OVERUSING CAPS LOCK PARTICULARLY IN RELATION TO CHRISTMAS, and yours,
Eli

Okay. Let me get this straight. I generally do not go for books that include or revolve around season-themed romance. The description "Sparkling white snowdrifts..." (the teaser line on the back cover) does absolutely nothing for me. But John Green is pretty much my hero. And Eli has been trying to get me to read Maureen Johnson's stuff for quite a while. Plus Lauren Myracle is one of the most awesome people I've ever met. So, though I was apprehensive about the subject matter--chick lit and all--I got Let it Snow anyway.

Near the top of the pile...

Yours,
Rae

Other reviews of Let it Snow:
Trashionista
Pop Culture Junkie

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

2008-11-29T12:44:00.001-08:00

A note to fantasy authors everywhere: unless you are Tamora Pierce, do not give your protagonist, antagonist, or main love interest strange eyes. I know it's super duper cool. I understand your need. But you have to resist. Be strong.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore takes place in a land where some people are Graced with a special talent or ability. Sometimes it's something not altogether useful, like climbing trees or making really fabulous cherries jubilee, but sometimes it's something more... dangerous. Take, for example, Katsa. Katsa has a killing Grace, and is used by her uncle, the king, as a weapon, sending her out to frighten unruly lords into submission. Sounds like fun! And by fun, I mean, you know. Not fun.
Which brings us¹ to something that needs to be discussed: Katsa's eyes. Namely, the fact that one of them is blue and the other is green.
Look. I know that it's, you know, awesome. But it's NOT OKAY. You know what else is NOT OKAY? Naming the main love interest (who, coincidentally, has one silver eye and one gold eye) Po. PO. NOT SEXY. NOT SEXY AT ALL.
And then there's the whole I-can-kill-you-with-my-bare-hands thing. But let's not get into that. Let's just say that if you like fantasy and you don't mind tired, overused fantasy tropes, then you won't mind Graceling. If you want something more original,² you might want to skip it and go reread some Tamora Pierce books, because Tamora Pierce is BOSS.³
Graceling is... odd. It doesn't seem to know what kind of book it wants to be, occilating between the kind of book that names countries according to a cute little North-South-East-West system, or the kind of book where the Tortured Heroine Broods, Glowers, and Kicks Ass to Defeat the Evil King. Neither is particularly compelling.

I say put Graceling near the bottom of your pile.

Here are some people that disagree with me:
Teen Book Review
Bookshelves of Doom
Ink Mage

Disagreeably, having two eyes that are decidedly the same color, and yours,

Eli

1. Not really. Good transition, Eli!
2. Or if not entirely original, at least better.
3. Tamora Pierce is the only person from whom I will accept Strange Eyes.

It's November First!

2008-11-01T12:34:00.000-07:00

Happy NaNoWriMo, everyone. Who's doing it this year?

Also, happy birthday, B.

Stephanie Kuehnert... The Inteview of AWESOME!!!

2008-10-06T21:52:00.000-07:00

Stephanie Kuehnert, author of the fabulous I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone (see our review here), was kind enough to grant us an interview.
We've got a bit of an odd/interesting/different interview format here at nineseveneight. The first nine questions are normal. (Normal as in we ask her questions, and then she answers them. Don't expect the actual questions themselves to be normal.) The next seven are sentences that we start and she completes. Then we asked for a list of eight favorite YA selections that we all should read.
See? Nine questions, seven sentence completions, and eight books. Aren't we clever?
But we'll shut up now; you don't care about us. On to the glorious Stephanie!
Interviewingly yours,

PART ONE

1. What inspired you to write a YA novel about rock and roll?

Rock and roll is my life blood. It has been since I was ten years old and my family finally got MTV and I started discovering bands like Faith No More, Jane's Addiction, REM, and Depeche Mode. Music meant the most to me in my teen years though, bands like Nirvana, Hole, Rancid, and The Gits really got me through some dark times. I knew and still know a lot of teens who felt the same way and I think that even thought IWBYJR wasn't originally written as a YA novel that is why teens (and adults) connect with it so deeply, because music strikes such an emotional chord for us all. But I've always really admired female musicians and I wrote this book as a tribute to them. Also I wanted to be a rock goddess, but I'm not talented in that way, so I created Emily to live through.

2. So. There's this time-traveling gnome, right? His name is Franz. He lives under a hill on an empty property near your home. You meet him one day while on a walk around the neighborhood. He offers you tea and crumpets and soon the two of you are thick as thieves. When you find out that his home is going to be bought by a corporation that has plans to demolish the hill, you decide to take action. You petition to save the lot and designate it as an endangered species reserve (The gnome population, according to Franz, is rapidly shrinking) and are successful! To show his gratitude, Franz offers to deliver a letter--written by you--to your teenage self. What would you write in that letter?

Man, now I grew up watching a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation and various other sci-fi and the problem with delivering a letter to my past self is what if it alters her path? And then I never end up writing IWBYJR or meeting my boyfriend or things like that. Now, there was a lot of stuff I went through in my teenage years that I wish I hadn't had to live through and as much as I sort of want to save myself the pain and say, "Hey this guy is really bad news, don't date him" and stuff like that, I needed to go through it to become who I am. So I think all I would tell myself is. "Stay strong. Things will get better. As long as you live through this, you'll end up happy in the long run." That shouldn't alter anything, but it will give me the reassurance I certainly needed back then.

3.Speaking of time travel... If you met Doctor Who and he offered to bring you to any time period, any at all, where (when) would you choose?

Okay, this is where the true dork is going to come out. I want to be cool and say, Oh I want to be in New Orleans in the 20s during the whole flapper thing or, lates 70s London or NYC or early 80s LA for the punk scene or I want to go back to the era of Little House on the Prairie and I do want all of these things, they would all be cool. But my biggest regret in life is that I didn't defy my parents and go see Nirvana in 1993 when I was 14. They told me I could see them in the summer. Kurt Cobain killed himself in April. They're my favorite band and I never got to see them live. So I'd want to go back to late 80s, early 90s Seattle and catch lots of Nirvana shows and also The Gits who I never got to see because their lead singer was murdered in 1993. And early Mudhoney and Screaming Trees shows would be cool, too. So yeah, I'm a grunge-obsessed dork who only wants to go back about 17 years and revel in the live music scene she was born about 5 years too late to enjoy :)

4. What do you like most about being an author?

Being able to tell the kinds of stories that I've always wanted to read myself. I've never been a mainstream person, I was an outsider growing up and wanted to read stories about girls like me. Now I'm writing those stories and it feels so good, especially when I hear from people who really related and are excited about them.

5. Who's your favorite Disney Princess?

Is Ariel from the Little Mermaid a princess? Well, I'm choosing her. I love water and swimming, so I'd love to live under the sea and I think mermaids are hot. I'd be happy as a mermaid, though I'd like to be able to walk on land from time to time which I think Ariel does. I haven't seen it in a while, I might be mixing it up with that Tom Hanks movie, Splash....

6. If you could be asked any question, what would it be, and how would you answer it?

What do you want to be for Halloween?
A Roller Derby Girl. I went to see the Windy City Rollers earlier this year and totally fell in love with roller derby girls. They are tough and beautiful and athletic and I wish I could be that tough, but I'd probably cry like a baby and quit the first time I fell. Now I just need to come up with a good roller derby girl name. My friend Amber came up with Didi Midarling, but I haven't come up with one yet!

7. Have you any advice for aspiring writers and/or rockers?

Hmm, perhaps both can benefit from this. It's not easy being a creative person. It doesn't always make you popular and it doesn't often make you rich. But if you are passionate about what you are doing, never give up on it. Keep writing, rocking, and looking for inspiration everywhere. Practice. Get feedback from others. Make friends that are in your field and learn from them, both from their feedback and from being inspired by them. Creative ventures are not solo ventures, you need an audience.

8. What is your favorite kind of cookie?

Umm all of them? I love those basic sugar cookies with thick sugary frosting on them the best though. Like I get a pumpkin one every year around this time. I have such a sweet tooth. The more sugary, the better!

9. Do you want to be our Joey Ramone?

No, I want to be your Cecil Castellucci. Seriously, that woman rocks and she is my biggest idol right now. I want to write as well about her and write gutsy girl heroines like she does. I try to write those characters, but I could be better. Cecil raises the bar for me. She is the ultimate cool in my world.

LA DEUXIÈME PARTIE (er, part two)

1. If I were a monkey, I would... spend my days swinging through the trees. That looks like so much fun and as a human I just don't have the arm strength.

2. If I could be anything other than a writer, I would be... a rock star. But since I can't play music, I write about rock stars.

3. If I ruled the world... I would probably hand the power off to Obama because he'd do a better job than me. Though I'm probably more radical politically than him, so there are a couple things I'd be weighing in on... I tried really hard not to think politically about this question, but I couldn't help it. Tis the season.

4. Unicorns are awesome because... without them there would be no sunshine. That's from Legend. You've seen Legend right? It's one of the only movies I can stand Tom Cruise in. That and Interview with a Vampire. Apparently vampires or unicorns must be involved to make Tom Cruise tolerable. I guess that is another awesome power belonging to unicorns.

5. I'm bringing sexy back because... I have tattoos and pink hair, meaning I'm unafraid to be myself and being yourself is the sexiest thing out there.

6. High school was... the hardest time in my life. I'm not gonna lie. But it made me who I am today so I begrudgingly accept that I had to go through it.

7. Yesterday, I... had to break up my first bar fight. It was not as badass as it sounds.

OSA KOLME (Yes, that's Finnish for "part three". We're just ridiculously cool like that.)

List your eight favorite YA books.

1. Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block. (The whole series. And I should mention The Hanged Man, too. Really all of her books...)

2. Beige by Cecil Castellucci

3. Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr (and Wicked Lovely too of course, but IE spoke to me on an ever deeper level)
4. Such A Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess (and Leftovers, too)
5. Almost Home by Jessica Blank
6. Girl by Blake Nelson (not sure if this really considered YA, but it was one of the only books besides Francesca Lia Block books I related to as a teenager)
7. Smack by Melvin Burgess
8. Invisible Touch by Kelly Parra

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

2008-09-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

Quite frankly and in all honesty, Neil Gaiman is a genius. With this new book, Gaiman (as usual) exhibits a beautiful mastery of language and a stunning ability to tell a damn good story.

Bod--short for Nobody. Nobody Owens. A boy who grew up in a graveyard. The only living person among many, many dead. He can Fade, Slide, and Dreamwalk, yet he knows precious little about the outside world, and is--on the whole--quite unfamiliar with his own kind. Which needs to change. For there are those among the living who want Bod dead.

Each chapter of this most excellent book takes place about a year or so following the one prior to it and focuses on a different different episode in Bod's life. It's an interesting way of telling a story, and seems as though it would be rather difficult structure to build a complex and consistent character around. Indeed, few authors would be able to pull it off. But it's Neil Gaiman, people. He does that magic author thing really, really well.

I think I heard somewhere that this is a middle-grade book ("somewhere" here meaning on the back of the book), which I didn't contest until I started reading it. It's not like I think it's beyond ten-and-up-ers... but it is a bit gruesome. Like, if it were a movie the little blurb beneath the rating would be something along the lines of "this film is rated PG and a half (?[I mean, I wouldn't call it PG-13 or anything]) for disturbing imagery, dark themes and some menace" (And I swear to you, I have seen "and some menace" on movie ratings before). It didn't frighten me. I could see it freaking younger children out a bit, though. But I'm probably underestimating them. Well, that's pretty likely, seeing as I was one of the only ten-year-olds to refuse to read "scary stories". Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark? terrified me. So I guess my point is, this book might have given me nightmares when I was ten-ish.

In case you're wondering, it's that wonderful kind of middle-grade book that is nothing like a middle-grade book. That is to say that most anyone would enjoy it. It's not too age specific. Like Coraline, which is similarly awesome and also by Neil Gaiman.

Admittedly, the book was a tad bit predictable. But not in a bothersome way. More in an excited "I KNEW IT!" sort of way.

Top O' the Ever-Growing Pile

Dancing the Macabray and yours...

The odd thing about The Graveyard Book is that it reads more like a collection of interconnected short stories than an actual novel. This isn't a bad thing-- Neil Gaiman manages to tie everything together beautifully at the end in his own, special, Gaimany way, so the book doesn't feel disjointed at all. (Okay, maybe a little bit. But only a little.)
This story isn't as dark as many of Gaiman's others (even though the majority of it happens to take place in a graveyard). The Graveyard Book displays the quirkier side of Gaiman's writing, more Neverwhere than American Gods. This is a good thing, in my opinion. The Graveyard Book finds the perfect balance between darkness and oddity¹, while I think that some of Gaiman's other novels tend to lean a bit too heavily toward the darkness.

Hey, look! Consensus!

Darkly, oddly yours,

1. Yes, this does mean what I think it means. I'm not using it incorrectly, I promise.

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

2008-09-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, there lived a girl. She had a mother and a father and three best friends. A life.
It all ended on one class trip to the aquarium. It was there that she followed the man to the parking lot. Just ten years old, she disappeared.

For five years now the girl--Alice--has been brutalized by the man--Ray. His acts of unspeakable cruelty have left her body and her mind bloody and broken. Alice dares not escape, dares not try, not even through death. So she remains. Just a shell. A living dead girl. With one breath Ray will tell her that he loves her, that she's his little girl. With the next, his hands will twist and bruise her. He will keep her forever. Or so she thinks. But now, as she grows taller and more womanly, Ray wants Alice to find him a new little girl. A girl younger and smoother than she.

And Alice tries. Because this might just be her salvation. She, at least, sees it that way. If Ray has another girl to love and hurt, he might leave her alone. Might let her go free. Or at least let her die.

Living Dead Girl is short, just 170 pages. But its lightness stops with its physical weight. Everything else about it is heavy. The premise, the events that transpire, the emotion; all of it heavy. While I was reading it, I could not even comprehend the sheer magnitude of the horror that Alice was facing. Yet I did not for a one single moment contemplate putting the book down. It gripped me from beginning to end.

One thing I really appreciated about this book was its psychological and emotional complexity. There are so many layers to the ideas of humanity and good and evil. Ray is lord and monster to Alice, but he is what he is for a reason. Things happened to him just like he does to Alice. Wrong? Indescribably so. Reprehensible? Undeniably. But still. There are layers. Always layers. Which Scott gets at perfectly without playing devil's advocate.

This book is enormously well-written. Told simply and achingly, it has an intensity and a realism that few could match. To be quite honest, the entire thing made my insides twist and squirm. It left me gasping for air and holding back tears in the middle of my second period class (because paying attention is for losers). There is no happy ending. At best, one could call it bittersweet. And that's being generously optimistic. But the ending is fitting. Perfect. Heartbreaking (I use that word quite a bit, don't I?).

In short, Living Dead Girl is horrible. And brilliant.
I'm not sure that I feel comfortable rating it.
But I will.
Top of the pile.

Fully alive and yours,

Forthwith

2008-09-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

Upcoming Reviews (Not Necessarily In This Order):

Paper Towns by John Green

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Violet in Private by Melissa Walker

Upcoming Things That Are Not Reviews:

An interview with Stephanie Kuehnert, author of I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone

Possibly maybe a podcast if you have a loose definition of the word "upcoming".

The Good Neighbors: Kin by Holly Black

2008-09-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

Kin tells the story of a girl, Rue, whose mother disappeared three weeks before the story begins. Rue begins to see strange people everywhere-- a winged girl sitting in a tree, a demon-headed woman at a club. Then, one of her father's students is found dead, and her father is accused of murder. Rue goes looking for answers, and discovers a labyrinth of strange and terrifying secrets, both about her parents and about herself.
Kin is quite a good graphic novel. The writing isn't quite as polished as it could be, but then again, Holly Black has never written a graphic novel before. The art, while at times awkward, is generally good, and at times quite beautiful. The plot is perhaps a bit complex for the short format--at times I found myself a bit confused as to what, exactly, was going on, but aside from that, the book works both as a cohesive whole and as the beginning of a longer story. The loose ends that need to be tied up are knotted well, and the loose ends that will be (presumably) tied up later are left hanging in a well-constructed, sequel-setting-up sort of way.
I mean, it's Holly Black, so it's good. It was interesting to see her writing in a different format, and I think it turned out well-- Kin is definitely worth reading. (Speaking of which, I've heard tell that you can get it now, even though it doesn't officially come out until October.)
I say put it near the top of your pile.

Goodly, neighborly yours,
Eli

Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block

2008-08-12T10:53:00.000-07:00

Psyche belongs to her father. A body for his films, little more. Her mother left long ago. She is alone.

But then, one fair and fateful night, Eros sneaks into her room. She may not look upon him, but she loves him all the same. He tells her beautiful, tragic myths and smells of sea spray and jasmine. They are love and soul, fitting together perfectly, one incomplete without the other. But nothing can last forever, and true to the original myth, she scorches his achingly beautiful skin with candle wax as she gazes at his sleeping, perfect form. She doubts that he--the sheer paragon of physical perfection--could keep on loving her, and is terrified by his magnificence. Thus they are separated from one another.

Torn up by the loss of her love, Psyche journeys out to find him, on the way becoming the women from the myths he once told her, the lovers of men and gods. She is Echo to Narcissus. Eurydice to Orpheus. Persephone to Hades. She bears witness to their personal tragedies, the things that broke these beautiful men. They may be sons of gods, but they have their addictions, their unsavory habits, and their insecurities. In short, they, too, are damaged. Because in the end, a man is just a man.

This book is not epic. Not in the sweeping, battle-ridden way. Quite simply, it is the story of one woman's life, told through a mythical lens. It tells of love, of abuse, of wrongdoings, and of redemption, stripping gods down to men with pretty faces and lots of problems. It asks "Is beauty monstrous?"

Francesca Lia Block delivers with this novel. It's short, only 128 pages (I read it in about an hour), but lovely and real. The verses speak a kind of painful yet important truth that I can't help but love, revealing both the terrifying brutality and striking beauty of Greek myths and everyday lives. What's more, as with her other novels, Block brings magic to neon and pavement like no other. She has this way of transforming seedy clubs and LA skies into a heady and shimmering version of our mundane world.

I loved Psyche in a Dress. Definitely my favourite of Block's books. It does, however, have a lot of mature content, so I wouldn't recommend it to those made uncomfortable by such things. Also, not everybody is a fan of books in verse. So, you know.

I, personally would put it on the top of my own pile (if I were to read it again), and it is my humble opinion that it belongs at the top of yours as well.

Mythically yours...

Twice Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris

2008-08-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris was one of my favorite books as a young whippersnapper, and so imagine my delight when I found that there was a sequel, titled, appropriately, Twice Upon a Marigold.
Once Upon a Marigold was a whimsical fairy tale about a boy named Christian, who lived in a crystal cave with a troll named Edric, across the river from a castle. In this castle lives the princess Marigold, along with her three sisters, the kindly old king, and the evil, scheming queen, Olympia. A bunch of stuff happens, but suffice to say that in the end, Marigold and Christian get married, Olympia is defeated and washed away down the river,¹ and everyone lives happily ever after. Or do they?
Olympia, though not dead, has lost her memory and is living a happy life in a little town miles away from the castle. But one day, she wakes up and, lo and behold, her memory has come back. And so she returns to the castle, bringing her evil-ness with her. Mayhem ensues. Mwahahaha!
Twice Upon a Marigold is quite a fun book-- a quirky fairy tale that doesn't take itself too seriously. But it doesn't quite work. While Once Upon a Marigold was an utterly engrossing and adorable tale of love and misfortune and messenger pigeons, Twice Upon A Marigold drags a bit, seeming contrived at times, rather than clever. While it's still a good book, it doesn't nearly measure up to the amazingness that is Once Upon a Marigold. I'm rather disappointed. I've been waiting for this book for years.
Definitely read the first book if you haven't already, but don't get your hopes up for the second. It's good, but not nearly as good as it should be.

Put this book in the middle of your pile.

Disappointedly yours,

1. But not dead, of course. They never die in these sorts of books.

Truancy by Isamu Fukui

2008-08-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

You know those books that just don't live up to your expectations?
Yeah.
Truancy is one of those books.
The plot description on the inside of the cover wasn't what made me read it, it was the statement tacked on after it:

"The author's purpose is not just to entertain, but to make a statement about the futility of the endless cycle of violence in the world, as well as the state of the educational system."

Because of this, I was expecting something really meaningful, something that might get me thinking in a way I hadn't thought before. So when I realized that the above quotation, which had so fascinated me, was merely a device to counterbalance the huge amounts of violence in the book. As if it only got added so the reader would be fooled into thinking that there was deeper meaning when, really, a fifteen-year-old boy had felt like writing something excessively violent. Seriously. And it wouldn't have been a problem if it had been well-written, but it wasn't. The end of the book was a thirty-something page fight scene. And I'm sorry to say it (I wanted to like this book), but I got bored.

So, that said, I suppose I should tell you what the book is about.
The city run by totalitarian government led by a man known to all as the Mayor. The school system is the most controlled part of the city, designed to make students grow up as useful and entirely obedient citizens. A "Zero Tolerance Policy" is put into effect, punishing students for even the most trivial of mistakes. And punishment here doesn't mean detention, suspension, or expulsion. It means death.

The Truancy is a militant group of former students determined to fight the system by any means necessary. Their leader, a mysterious boy known as Zyid, is a strong leader and a merciless killer.

Tack...well, Tack is just a boy. A high school student trapped--just like all the others--by the school system. He hates it, but he has no other options. Soon, though, he meets a stranger in a forbidden district, a pacifist named Umasi (Huh. The author's name spelled backwards. Imagine that.) who becomes Tack's mentor. Things begin to look brighter. Despite the drudgery and pointlessness of his daily routine, Tack now has something to look forward to.

Then, when the person Tack loves most is killed by Zyid in a dispute between the Truancy and the Educators (a section of the government), he abandons the teachings of his mentor and joins the Truancy, intending to take revenge on Zyid by first gaining his trust. As he works his way up in the ranks, Tack becomes a hardened killer himself, becoming one of the most formidable Truants, almost Zyid's match. But as he develops his ability to kill, he begins to sympathize more and more with the Truancy. He still wants revenge, but recognizes that if he kills Zyid, the Truancy will fall and the educators will win.

Quite honestly, Truancy had potential. It did. The story could have been great. But I don't feel as though Fukui was stable enough in his writing ability or style. The book's message was too blatant, too obvious. I'm not saying that I would prefer my books to be really obscure, but Truancy had a distinct air of trying-too-hard-ness. And the word "suddenly" was used way, way too often. The love-shape was predictable but frustrating. I could tell who Tack's love interest would be, because she was pretty much the only female character. This, I found to be ridiculous, as there was basically no reason for it. I mean, I love love, for the most part. But I absolutely hate it when relationships spring from nothingness. Tack and his girl-type creature had little real reason to like, let alone love each other. And I personally, think it's a cheap to not give the proper background for a bookromance, but have it exist because it's supposed to be there.

All in all, not a book that I would recommend. It wasn't awful or anything. I can understand how some would like it a lot. But it wasn't my cuppa tea.

My verdict: put it at the bottom of your pile (if it's in there at all). Unless, of course, you particularly enjoy mindless violence and stupid romance. Or if you really like the word "suddenly".

Disappointed, frustrated, and banning "suddenly" from my vocabulary...

PS: Oh dear. I've just found out that this book was but the first in a trilogy.

Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer

2008-08-08T11:39:00.000-07:00

The interesting thing about the Artemis Fowl books is that they never get old. The Time Paradox is the sixth in a series that show no signs of stopping anytime soon, but though many series seem to recycle the same story over and over again, Artemis Fowl has yet to fall into that trap.
In The Time Paradox, Artemis and his erstwhile companions, well, go back in time. And do some cool technological stuff. Artemis is smarmy, but endearingly so, and Holly is as tough and sarcastic as always. For me, this is like the book version of ice cream. Maybe that's weird, I don't know. But it's entertaining, I don't have to think about it too much, there are exciting gadgets, and the bad guys always get pwned in the end. Er, not that there are any gadgets or bad guys in ice cream. Oh, you know what I mean.
So, if you like Artemis Fowl, put this book at the top of your pile. If you don't like Artemis Fowl, then you're obviously crazy. Who doesn't like Artemis Fowl? I mean, really.

Happy about Artemis, attempting to kidnap fairies, and yours,

PS Yes, dystopian fortnight is still happening. Yes, it has been going on for over a fortnight. I'm sure you'll all live.

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert

2008-07-26T23:41:00.000-07:00

Emily Black is destined to be a rock star. Her mother left soon after she was born to 'follow the music', and Emily has inherited her passion. But instead of following the music, Emily creates it-- and all the while, somewhere in the back of her mind, she hopes that the music will lead her mother back.
Told from two points of view-- Emily's and her mother's (though mostly Emily's)-- I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone is a gritty¹ and utterly engrossing portrait of one girl's relationship with her mother and with music.
I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone is the kind of book that makes you want to join a band. The book reads almost like a love letter to punk rock at times (in the best possible way). It's an almost-epic tale of a girl and her music, spanning years, from Emily's first disastrous show to gold-record success, with a lot in between.²
If you like music, or even if you don't, you need to read this book. It's one of the most real and original books I've read in a while. Stephanie Kuehnert's writing is fabulous, and Emily's unique voice jumps out at you from the very first page.

Put it at the top of your pile, I say.

Wanting to join a band, wanting to be your Joey Ramone³, and yours,

1. An overused word, but an appropriate one.
2. And also some stuff before and after, but that's not the point.
3. Not really.

HI THERE

2008-07-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

Hell0! Welcome to nineseveneight. Here's some things you should know:

In case you're wondering about the name-- we called this blog nineseveneight because it's the country code for Bookland. Bookland is the awesomest imaginary place ever.
We'll have some sort of fabulous page header up soon. Ish.
May of you may know us because we wrote for 3 Evil Cousins. We had a wonderful time at 3 Evil Cousins, but we wanted to have the experience of administering our own blog.
We're still the same people that we were over at 3 Evil Cousins, but we'll be going by different names-- that is, we'll be going by our real names. Therefore, now and forever we are Eli (formerly known as Aislinn) and Rae (formerly known as Avery). We'll have something in the sidebar in case you forget who is who.
In addition to that, we have a different rating system than the one we used at 3 Evil Cousins. Instead of daggers, we'll be rating books on where in your pile it should go, "at the top" being the best, "not in your pile" being the worst.

Feel free to email us at nineseveneight(at)gmail(dot)com (or individually at heretherebeeli(at)gmai(dot)com {for Eli/Aislinn} or herethereberae(at)gmail(dot)com {for Rae/Avery}).
Yours,

Eli and Rae

A Prequel

2008-07-26T11:46:00.001-07:00

The prequel to Crown Duel ¹ is OUT!² (Well, technically it comes out on August 1st, but that's not the point.) It's called A Stranger to Command (formerly known as Shevraeth in Marloven Hess, if perhaps you read it on Sherwood Smith's website). It's small-press, and therefore pretty hard to find, but you can get it online, so buy it now! Now, I say!
Also, go to Sherwood Smith's website and then read everything she's ever written.

1. Also known as Eli's favorite book ever.
2. Yes, there is a prequel to Crown Duel. Yes, this is the best thing to happen since sliced bread. In fact, it's kind of more awesome than sliced bread. Like, I'd rather have this book than bread that happens to be cut into pieces. I'm just saying.

Yours,

Shift by Charlotte Agell

2008-07-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

I've seen extreme beauty dystopia, computer-in-your-brain dystopia, strange gladiatorial dystopia, and extreme weather dystopia (we'll be getting to reviewing that one soon), to name a few. Shift by Charlotte Agell adds religious-extremist dystopia to that list.
Fifteen-year-old Adrian Havoc lives in a world where Christianity is enforced. Talk of evolution is forbidden, a televised 'rapture' is mandatory viewing, and the government (called Homestate) has begun to warn everyone that the end is near. As in the apocalypse. Fun!
Together with his young sister, a beautiful girl, and a rather disgruntled penguin, Adrian sets off through the Deadlands, a nuclear wasteland created years before in the terrorist attack that preceded Homestate's rise to power. What Adrian finds there will change the world forever.
To be honest, I was disappointed by Shift. It's a good concept, but it was poorly executed. Adrian's departure across the Deadlands seemed ill-planned and sudden, not taken as seriously as it should have been. In fact, most things weren't taken as seriously as I would have liked-- government conspiracies were unraveled, atrocities came to light, and still were never truly explored. No sense of horror was conveyed, only a weak sort of Oh, okay. So that's what happened. There were horrible things going on in this world, and none of them were taken seriously or even thought about overmuch by anyone. The bleak dystopian landscape presented in Shift is only explored in passing mention, taking second place to the events of the novel, when in all rights they should be intertwined.
In addition, while the world is well-imagined (if treated lightly), the plot is... unsatisfactory. It seemed that there were more direct, more sense-making things that the protagonists could have fought against, but the author instead chose to make the main conflict (that is, the Bad Thing that the protagonists are trying to prevent) a strange, convoluted and almost contrived disaster, instead of having something that really, directly confronted the existence and ideology of the world the book creates. Instead, we got something that was a little too off-base, a tad too far-fetched to really make a point.
Shift creates a thought-provoking, terrifying, well-constructed world and then ignores its significance. Put it in the middle of your pile.

Glad not to be ruled by extremist crazies, ruminating on the amusement factor of penguins, and yours,

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2008-07-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

It was the first week of summer vacation. As has been the case in many summers prior, I was at Eli's family's cabin in the mountains. Near the cabin is this lake with a platform in the middle, which I relish spending time on above almost all else. So naturally, I had thought that I'd be swimming/lying on a floating metal square for practically the entire time I was there. But this was not to be so, for, on the second day, I picked up Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games. Reading is something that I do as often as I possibly can, but rarely am I so utterly swept up by a book. I couldn't put it down. Not when Eli began lamenting her boredom (subtle, eh?). Not when it was time for lunch (Who needs food anyway?). Not even when the swimming on the lake was brought up by Eli's mum. Eli spoke for me: "She has to finish her book first."

The nation of Panem--which was once called North America--is comprised of twelve districts centered around the glorious Capitol. Each year, the government stages the Hunger Games, a televised competition that pits the youth of the districts against one another. The object of the game: Kill your opponents. Stay alive.

Two "tributes", a girl and a boy, are selected by lottery to take part in the Games. Though being chosen is supposedly a great honor, the people of the poorer districts know better. They recognize the Hunger Games for what they are: a despicable bloodsport meant to punish the people for past rebellions.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss grew up in District 12, a coal mining town, and the poorest district of Panem. Having had to take care of her family since her father's death, she knows a thing or two about survival. And now, now that she's the female tribute for her district, she'll need to use every skill that she has--and even some she doesn't--to survive. She's been in a life-or-death situation before, so she just might stand a chance. But that time, she wasn't going up against people who had trained their whole lives to dominate the Games. She didn't have to compete against the person whose kindness kept her going through her darkest hour. And she certainly didn't have to do it all on national television.

Something I loved about this book is that it isn't really "gender specific". That is to say, it's a book that both guys and girls can enjoy wholeheartedly, a somewhat rare find in the world of YA. The Hunger Games is absolutely fantastic. Action, adventure, romance and true meaning can be found in abundance throughout. Collins commands her story perfectly, writing her characters and their world vividly and truthfully. Katniss is a complex, lovable, kickass character; I don't think that I could ask for more. Well paced, wonderfully written and undeniably creepy, The Hunger Games is one of my very favourite books of of 2008.

Put it at the top of your pile. You won't regret it in the least.

In existence once more...

(formerly known as Avery)
PS: The Hunger Games comes out on October 1st

First off, I'd like to say that if you were picturing some grand mountain villa when Rae said 'Eli's family's cabin', you're rather mistaken; it's more akin to a large wooden box. (But the termites are gone now! Although the lovely avocado appliances are gone as well, which is terribly sad.)
But let’s get back to the point shall we? The point being, of course, The Hunger Games, which was a most amazingly fantabulous book. One of those books that you actually physically can’t put down—no really, I was reading it as I was walking to school and I ran into a lamppost (unfortunately, this didn’t mean that I had entered Narnia). Everything about this book is amazing—the characters, the plot, the world, and, most of all, the writing. This is one of the best books I’ve read this year— maybe even one of the best books I’ve read, period.

Put this book at the top of your pile.

In a different place (though not Narnia), and with a different name, but still, as always, yours,

(formerly known as Aislinn)

Dystopian Fortnight

2008-07-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Dystopia is in. Honestly, we've both been reading so many dystopian books lately that we started to see hoverboards out of the corners of our eyes. So we've deemed the next two weeks Dystopian Fortnight here at nineseveneight. We'll be reviewing other books, of course, but the next fourteen days will be heavy on the creepy-future books. Here are some upcoming dystopian reviews:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Shift by Charlotte Agell
Truancy by Isamu Fukui
The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

2008-06-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

Frankie Landau-Banks is a sophomore at Alabaster, a prestigious prep school where one might make acquaintances that will open doors all throughout life. Previously a small and awkward-looking freshman who dominated at debate, Frankie has since, shall we say...developed. And, perhaps as a result of this development, gorgeous senior Matthew Livingston notices her, invites her to a late-night golf-course shindig, and becomes her boyfriend. Frankie is positively thrilled, and loves spending time with Matthew and his friends. But when Matthew starts acting strangely--blowing her off to hang with the guys, freaking out when she touches the ridiculous china dog ornament on his desk, and quite obviously lying to her--she follows him. He ends up leading her to an old theater where she discovers that he is the Basset King, leader of the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, which is a secret society that has been active at Alabaster for who-knows-how-long. But Matthew hasn't told her about it, and from the looks of it, he doesn't plan to. Frankie is furious. She knows that she's just as smart than Matthew and his friends, if not smarter. But she's a girl, and the Order is an all-male society.
Does she confront him?
No.
She gets even by becoming the mastermind behind a series of the most epic pranks Alabaster Preparatory has ever seen.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is quite simply excellent. It is the story of a girl who will not stand for being the "simple and sweet" girlfriend and nothing more, who refuses to give in to the panopticon (look it up) of our society, and who has decided that she won't take "no" from anybody. E. Lockhart writes with intelligence and humor, interspersing facts on secret societies that I found to be absolutely fascinating. At one point (or maybe a couple) a bit of first-person was thrown into the mix, which was slightly confusing, but it didn't take away from my like for the book as a whole. I especially appreciated Frankie's transformation over the course of the book, as well as the message conveyed.

Five out of five daggers
Wanting very badly to do something epic...
Avery Trelaine

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Only once in while there comes a book that really truly means something to me and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks was one of those books. Not only was it amazingly well written, not only was I incapable of putting it down, but it made me think. Frankie Landau-Banks is a girl who has always been underestimated, and this book is the story of how she goes from being her family's small, helpless Bunny Rabbit to being, truly, a force of nature. If you read anything at all this year, read this book

Five out of five.
Amazed, happy, and yours,
Aislinn Ai

You Know Where to Find Me by Rachel Cohn

2008-06-26T15:58:00.000-07:00

When they were younger, Laura and Miles were inseparable. They were more than friends, more than cousins, they were like sisters. They spent their days in the treehouse that Laura's father built for them, playing Once Upon a Time and speaking in a made-up language.

As they grew up, though, they grew apart. Laura flourished in a world of popularity well-suited to her wealth and golden beauty. Miles, on the other hand, retreated into junk food and cigarettes, veiling herself in gothic makeup and facial piercings. She read constantly, preferring words to people. Especially people like the classmates that nicknamed her 8-Mile. Her only true friend at her D.C. charter school the popular, handsome, and talented acting/rapping/breakdancing Jamal, who once stood up for her when nobody else would. Occasionally, Laura and Miles would return to the treehouse of their childhood, passing time together in a Percoset-induced haze. It couldn't come close to the happiness of their past, but was all that Miles had to hold on to. So when Laura--beautiful, intelligent, lovely Laura--commits suicide, Miles is left shattered. She understands why Laura chose not to live, but is heartbroken nonetheless, wishing that she could have followed her on the way out. Wishing that they could have chosen together. With nothing else left, Miles turns to prescription painkillers, that numb-nothing-dream her only respite from the pain of Laura's memory. She's on a dangerous path here, losing all she didn't know she had to high she can't bear to give up.

You Know Where to Find Me is a powerful, well-written story of love, loss, and unexpected healing. It's heart-wrenching, funny, and sometimes even heart-wrenchingly funny. Cohn embodies Miles perfectly, writing with both wit and deep grief that make the novel entirely believable.

Four and one-half out of five daggers.

Hugs, not drugs...
Avery Trelaine

Confessions of a Serial Kisser by Wendelin Van Draanen

2008-06-26T15:57:00.001-07:00

Evangeline Bianca Logan decides to clean the house. She washes the kitchen. She cleans the bathrooms. She tidies the bedrooms. And she finds--under her mother’s bed--the romance novel that will turn her into a serial kisser. Entitled The Crimson Kiss, the book inspires Evangeline to give herself a makeover, change her outlook, and go on a mission to find her own perfect, crimson, Grayson-and-Delilah kiss.

As Evangeline sets off on her mighty quest, she encounters a series of obstacles. Namely, bad kissers. Robbie Marshall attacks. That guy at the coffee shop was a bulldozer. Stu Dillard wants a rating of all things (hoping to out-man Robbie at something). And let's not even talk about Blake Jennings.

But bad kissers aren't her only problem. For one thing, her jerk of a two-timing father won't stop calling. For another, people have started magic-marker-ing her phone number onto urinals. Her grades have started slipping. And, to top it all off, a mistaken kiss leads Evangeline's best friend Adrienne to call their friendship quits.

I must admit, I was worried.
You see, I grew up reading (and adoring) Van Draanen’s Sammy Keyes series (about a snaky and intelligent girl-detective with an affinity for high-tops [a breath of fresh, hilarious, and thankfully Nancy Drew-free air]), which seemed a far, far cry from this pink-covered, lipstick-print-ed, so-very-scarily-titled book. But I just couldn’t resist. And guess what?…I loved it. It made me laugh out loud. It made me cry. It referenced The Princess Bride. And Evangeline was nice and real, just the way I like my characters.

All in all, Confessions of a Serial Kisser is a great book. Perhaps not the deepest piece of literature I've ever read, but it certainly wasn't mindless drivel, either. I still like the Sammy Keyes books better, though (Even though they are middle-grade).

Four out of Five daggers

Relieved...
Avery Trelaine

Airhead by Meg Cabot

2008-06-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

One day, Em Watts is just Em Watts, a teenage tomboy with a love for video games and no love whatsoever for the Walking Dead, her name for the popular people at her school. The next day she is Nikki Howard, teenage supermodel. And there's nothing she can do about it.
Nope, there's no Freaky-Friday-esque spirit transfer. But seeing as Meg Cabot seems to want to keep most of the details under wraps, I won't give away the plot of Airhead any more than I already have. Let's just say that it's pretty darn cool. (Besides, if you really want to know, I'm sure you can find it online.)
Airhead is a thoroughly enjoyable book, not just because it's about a gamer geek trapped in the body of a supermodel, but because (despite what all the chick-lit-haters might say) Meg Cabot is quite a good writer. The heroine is likable, the supporting characters are amusing and believable, and the plot is clever and fun, though it occasionally dragged.
Airhead is the first in a trilogy, and it reads like it-- it seems more like the beginning of a story than a complete story in and of itself. This may bother some people, as it made the plot a bit slow at times. This format also means that readers (if they enjoyed the book) will be clamoring to read the second, because the end of Airhead seems more like (at risk of sounding clichéd) a beginning.
Airhead comes out on May 13.

All in all, I would say that Airhead makes a great light read. I give it four daggers out of five.

Glad that she is still residing in her own body, but also kind of wishing that she weren't because then she could have an adventure, and also writing very long sign-offs, and also, yours,

Aislinn Ai

How to be Bad

2008-06-26T15:53:00.001-07:00

How to be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle is a fun, exciting spin on the classic road trip story.
Vicks, Jesse, and Mel are three very different friends. Well, not exactly-- Vicks and Jesse are friends, and Mel is the rich girl with no friends who works at the Waffle House with them. Nevertheless, they all climb into Jesse's car (her mother's car actually) on a Friday night for a weekend road trip to Miami. Along the way, they encounter a giant stuffed alligator, a pirate hotel, one very hot guy, and a new understanding of both each other and themselves.
I loved How to be Bad. The styles of the three writers were very different, but they meshed well with one another, as well as with the characters that each author wrote. (Though I won't tell you who wrote who-- it's at the back of the book for you to find out, after you've read it.)
How to be Bad is a great story of road-tripping, heartbreak, very strange tourist destinations, and, most of all, friendship.

I give this 1 fabulous book, with 3 fabulous authors, 4 fabulous daggers. (Aren't I clever?)

Bad (on account of the fact that I've just learned how!), wanting to go on a road trip, and yours,

Aislinn Ai

The Squad

2008-06-26T15:50:00.000-07:00

The Squad: Perfect Cover and The Squad: Killer Spirit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes are the first two books in a series.
Toby Klein was just your average high school hacker-loner-who-is-also-a-black-belt-in-karate, until she is recruited to join her school's varsity cheerleading squad-- something she would never do in a million years. Until she finds out that the squad is actually a cover for a team of highly trained government agents. Suddenly, Toby goes from being the aforementioned loner-hacker who occasionally beats up football players to being one of the most popular girls in school. She is quickly pulled into a web of intrigue, danger, and body glitter. Lots of body glitter.
Okay, so, yes, I do realize that this book is about cheerleader secret agents. But that fact notwithstanding, these are fun, enjoyable books. It helps that the main character is very anti-cheerleader, despite the fact that she is one. Also on the plus side, the main character is actually smart, something I would never have guessed by looking at the covers of the books. (I mean, cheerleader silouhettes? Really?) To be honest, I picked up the first one because I thought it would be amusing (unintentionally). I was suprised to find thatI actually enjoyed it (and then read the second one, of course). These are great light reads-- they're clever, there's action, and there's, um, pep rallies. Yeah. And best of all? They're actually written well. (And they're paperbacks, so they're cheap.) So if you've boon looking for something fun to read that you don't have to think about too hard, I've found it for you. You can thank me later.

I give these books 3.5 daggers each.

Cheerleading (or not), secret-agenting, and yours,

Aislinn Ai

Bad Kitty by Michelle Jaffe

2008-06-26T15:49:00.001-07:00

Take one Meg Cabot Novel. Add mystery. Set in Las Vegas. Sprinkle with glitter. Voila! Bad Kitty by Michele Jaffe.

Jasmine is a girl with a talent for sleuthing. When she is dragged to Las Vegas for a family vacation, what can she do but encounter a mystery and try to solve it?
Usually when I read mystery novels I know exactly who did it and how chapters before the main character, and I just end up throwing the book across the room in frustration at the protagonist's stupidity. In Bad Kitty, I really didn't know the answer-- but I thought the protagonist was acting stupid anyway. Is it too much to ask for a main female character to be an intelligent person who doesn't jump to random, preposterous conclusions at the drop of a hat? The only time I've seen this done right was in Veronica Mars, where even if she was wrong, she was logical about it.
Aside from this, though, Bad Kitty is an entertaining, if not particularly deep, book. The main character is almost someone I might like, and the mystery is engaging and fun.

Bad Kitty is a good book to read if you want something light that doesn't require a huge amount of thought. The best thing about it is that, though it's a girly book (see sparkles on cover for proof), the characters aren't self-absorbed privileged, er, witches a la Gossip Girl. If you're a fan of Meg Cabot, you'll like this book. If you're not, you won't.

I give it 3 daggers.

Slightly angry, wishing that Veronica Mars hadn't been cancelled, and yours,

Aislinn Ai

The Decoding of Lana Morris by Laura and Tom Mcneal

2008-06-26T15:45:00.001-07:00

Lana Morris does not belong here. Something about living with an evil foster mother and a bunch of Special Needs Kids (Snicks, for short) just isn't her cup of tea. Called "Foster" by K.C., Trina, and Spink--three of the four other teenagers in the area-- she is without friends. And, to top it all off, she's been having some rather forbidden feelings for her foster father--ones that he encourages.

One day, sick of minding the Snicks and fed up with her foster mother's constant harassment, Lana takes a ride in the trunk of K.C.'s green LeSabre, too desperate to get out of the house to care that she'l be hot, uncomfortable, and ignored. They take a bumpy ride out in the middle of nowhere, ending up in the town of Hereford. While K.C. and company get lunch, Lana wanders into a strange little antique shop. She is fascinated by a drawing kit, for which she ends up trading the thing she holds most dear. Soon, Lana discovers that the drawing kit is far from ordinary. Whatever she draws on the paper comes to be. When she erases, it is undone. This, of course, has some unexpected consequences.

The Decoding of Lana Morris was a quick and not very memorable read. It was written in the third person present, which I found rather awkward. The story itself was at times beautiful and tender, but the magical element of the drawing kit (which, I'll admit, drew me to the book in the first place) bothered me. There was no rhyme or reason to it, really. What Lana drew always manifested itself differently, and a bit inaccurately.

To be completely honest, I just wasn't engaged by the story. It had potential...but did nothing to draw me in.

Three out of five daggers.

Suffering from mild book apathy...
Avery Trelaine

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr

2008-06-26T15:43:00.001-07:00

Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr is a creepy, haunting urban fantasy that fully lives up to the standard set by Marr’s first book, Wicked Lovely… though it isn’t quite as good.
Ink Exchange is the story of Leslie, a girl who wants to get a tattoo to reclaim her body as her own (though you’ll have to read the book to find out why she feels the need to do so). Leslie’s family is broken—her mother is gone, her father drinks, and her brother is high all the time. She feels distant from her friends, particularly Aislinn (the main character of Wicked Lovely), who seems to be changing in ways that Leslie cannot explain or understand.
Leslie’s tattoo is beautiful—a pair of winged eyes on her upper back. But, as it turns out, it is not a normal tattoo. Leslie has become the subject of an Ink Exchange, something which ties her to the King of the Dark Court, Irial. This bond, as well as her friendship with Aislinn and a growing romance between she and the faery Niall, plunges Leslie into the strange and dangerous world of Faerie.
As I said before, Ink Exchange is good, but not quite as good as Wicked Lovely. One reason for this, I think, is Leslie’s relationship with Niall. Ink Exchange is the story of a damaged girl attempting to regain control of her life, and I felt that her romance with Niall was superfluous, unnecessary. At times it was even melodramatic— earning a very teenage roll of the eyes from me (though I do tend to roll my eyes a lot). It also created a Niall-Leslie-Irial love triangle that was a little too similar to the Seth-Aislinn-Keenan love triangle from Wicked Lovely.
All in all, though, Ink Exchange was a gorgeously executed, fabulously dark urban fantasy—just what I would expect from Melissa Marr. Irial made me shiver (creepycreepycreepy) and Leslie was a believable and interesting main character. So read this book. It’s good.

I give it four daggers.
Shivering, creeped out, happy, and yours,
Aislinn Ai

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The Dark Court's nature is terrifyingly brutal. Its king, Irial, is icily cruel and oddly compassionate by turns. And Leslie--accidentally tied to them by the tattoo meant to set her free--is confused. Her will is not her own these days, and she has no idea why.
This is the world of Ink Exchange. It's scary, beautiful, and well imagined. Admittedly, it isn't as good as Wicked Lovely, but is quite enjoyable nonetheless. I didn't find the Niall-Leslie love shape quite as superfluous as Aislinn seemed to. He (Niall) is quite a good character.

I bestow three and a half out of five daggers on Ink Exchange.
Looking over my shoulder for faeries...
Avery Trelaine

Poseur by Rachel Maude

2008-06-26T15:41:00.000-07:00

Ah, Gossip Girl rip-offs. How I love them. And by love, I mean, of course, hate.

Take Gossip Girl. Subtract almost anything risque. Add fashion design. Relocate to LA. Voila! Poseur by Rachel Maude.
Poseur is the story of four very different girls, all of whom go to an exclusive LA high school. These girls (a ghetto-diva, a girly-girl, a punk, and a hippie) are foced to take a class together in which they must design their own fashion label. Hilarity attempts to ensue.
The book tried to be clever (and occasionally succeeded), but it was undermined by the fact that the author can't write well. At all.
The one good thing was the drawings that were scattered throughout the book (much as in Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale). The author can't write, but she can definitely draw, and the characters looked exactly as I pictured them. It makes me think that Poseur would work much better as a slightly-vacuous-but-still-entertaining graphic novel.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out that the cover is horrendous. The designer obviously hasn't read the book (Though who can blame them?), and whoever dressed the models was obviously on crack. I mean, seriously.
Poseur is intended to be the first in a series.

I award Poseur a whopping... two daggers. One of them is only because of the drawings.

Horrified, critical, and yours,

Aislinn Ai

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale

2008-06-26T15:40:00.000-07:00

Shannon Hale's Book of a Thousand Days is positively fabulous. A reimagined Grimm brothers fairie tale, it is the journal of Dashti, a mucker girl who leaves behind all she knows and journeys to the city of Titor's Garden. There, she trains to become a maid to the gentry. When her training is complete, she goes to serve the Lady Saren, daughter of the highest house in Titor's Garden. All is not well, however, and she finds herself locked in a tower with her mistress because of Saren's refusal to marry a man who she does not love. Seven years she is destined to live in the tower, serving her lady day in and day out, unable to see the sky. Things in the tower soon turn ugly. Food is depleted, days range from sweltering to frigid, and Dashti and her lady are threatened by Saren's scorned suitor, the cruel Lord Khasar. As conditions spiral from uncomfortable to life-threatening, Dashti is forced to make the choices that will either save or destroy both herself and Saren, who she has sworn to protect.

A fan of Shannon Hale's prior to reading the book, I was not disappointed in the least. Beautifully written, Book of a Thousand Days has a fantastic setting based on medieval Mongolia. It not only has romance, magic, adventure, and a dash of mystery; it challenges the idea of basing one's self-worth on social constructs. Hooray for books with meaning! True, I was able to predict what was going to happen fairly easily...but that wasn't a problem. I rather liked where it was going. Also, it's way better than Maid Maleen (The story that it's based on). I mean, way better.

All in all, Book of a Thousand Days is awesome (To put my wonderfully broad vocabulary to good use...Heh). It's the kind of book that you want to keep reading. Dashti is a great character living in a vivid, believable world. Her story satisfies.

I give Book of a Thousand Days four out of five daggers.
Satisfied, Khan Tegus-adoring*, and quailing at the mere idea of spending seven years in a tower...
Avery Trelaine

*Another awesome male character? Why yes, indeed. So read it.

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Book of a Thousand days was amazing. The thing that struck me the most (besides, uh, the fact that it was a really good book) was the drawings that were interspersed throughout the pages. This seems to be a trend of late (perhaps due to the popularity of graphic novels?). Anyhow, the drawings were quite good, even if they weren't the same as how I pictured the main character. (That is a drawback... ack, pun NOT intended. At ALL.)

Also, we met Shannon Hale and she was MADE OF AWESOME. OH MY WORD.

I second Avery's dagger-number:
Reading manga, making puns (urgh), and yours,
Aislinn Ai

Sweethearts by Sarah Zarr

2008-06-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr is the story of a girl, Jennifer "Jenna" Harris, who once had a friend named Cameron Quick. They were both outcasts in elementary school-- Jennifer the fat girl, Cameron the weird boy. Then, suddenly Cameron moves away-- and Jennifer hears that he has died. Years later, Jennifer has become Jenna, a thin, popular, well-adjusted teen. She has never forgotten Cameron Quick, though, and imagine her suprise when he shows up out of the blue one day. Together, they must confront their past and their present-- and find some way to settle the "unfinished business" (as Jenna's mother calls it) between them.

As delectable as the cover looks, Sweethearts didn't quite satisfy me. There wasn't enough substance-- not much really happened. Scenes from Jenna's present life were interspersed with scenes from her past, including a particularly trumatic one that the book centers around. But, I mean... I feel callous saying this, but it just didn't seem trumatic enough. When you finally find out what happened to Jenna, it's sort of... anticlimactic. I told a librarian friend of mine this, and she said, "Yes, but that's how life is." She has a point-- life isn't always climactic. But life isn't always interesting, either.

Sweethearts is a very psycological book (there really isn't much in the way of plot). I like some books like this (Speak, for instance), but it can drag on after a while. Sweehearts didn't drag too much, but it didn't grab me and pull me in, either. It's very well-written, and makes me want to read Zarr's first book, Story of a Girl (which was nominated for the National Book Award). But Sweethearts just... wasn't my cup of tea. Or plate of cookies. Or something.

I give Sweethearts three out of five daggers.

Eating heart-shaped cookies, vaguely disappointed, and yours,

Aislinn Ai

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

2008-06-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare is fast-paced, exciting, hilarious, and heartbreaking.

In City of Bones, the first book, Clary Fray’s world is turned upside-down. She has never thought of herself as being anything other than ordinary, until she sees a group of teenagers kill a demon—and finds that no one else can see them. Soon after that, Clary’s mother mysteriously disappears, and she is plunged into a world in which vampires and werewolves are real. She discovers that she is a Shadowhunter—a race of demon-slayers. To top it all off, she finds herself caught in a nasty love triangle with Simon, her best friend, and Jace, an arrogant, handsome Shadowhunter. Just as she seems to be falling for Jace, she finds out that Valentine, the villainous man who kidnapped her mother* is her father, and Jace is her brother. Oops.

As City of Ashes begins, Clary’s mother is lying in the hospital in a coma, the Clave** suspects that Jace is a spy for his father, and Clary is very romantically confused.

Valentine goes after the second Mortal Instrument, the Soul-Sword, and is more of a jerk than ever. Jace is an angry, angst-ridden teenager.*** Simon seems to be becoming more than a friend to Clary, but she’s still struggling with her feelings for Jace. And—my word! Is our love triangle becoming more of a… love… square? Indeed it is! Speaking of love shapes, Alec gets a boyfriend.****

On top of all the aforementioned drama, Clary and Jace seem to be discovering mysterious powers. And, of course, there is still the lingering question: are they really siblings?*****

City of Ashes is fabulous—at least as good as City of Bones, if not better. Also, there are more flying motorcycles.

I give City of Ashes four and one-half daggers.

*He also stole the Mortal Cup, which is used to make more Shadowhunters, so that he can build an ARMY OF DOOM.
** That’s the big scary Shadowhunter government.
*** But really, he has every right to his emo-ness.
**** No, I’m not telling who it is. I think you can figure it out if you try, though.
***** I’m hoping no.

Riding a flying motorcycle, battling Valentine, and hoping beyond hope that Jace and Clary aren't related,

PS City of Ashes comes out on March 25.

Avery adds:

Here I sit, reveling in the glorious-ness of the Advanced Reader Copy.
Very little is more satisfying than reading a book that is not yet on the shelf. That being said, City of Ashes is a particular type of ARC. Not only is it not yet available for the reading pleasure of the general public...It's really good! Vampires, werewolves, betrayal, corruption, love shapes, and Jace Wayland, all wrapped up in a lovely package of well written awesomeness.
I laughed. I cried. I ranted passionately to Aislinn about the events that transpired. (Which was rather frustrating, I might add, as I couldn't rant to her until she'd finished reading it.)

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

2008-06-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

The Sweet Far Thing is the third in Libba Bray's trilogy, which, as the back cover informs me, is called the Gemma Doyle Trilogy.*
And it's really, really good. It gave me shivers. And it made me cry. No, really. Libba Bray, you made me cry. I shall never forgive you.**
Now, if you haven't read the first two books (A Great and Terrible Beauty and Rebel Angels) I suggest that instead of reading the rest of this post, which will likely contain spoilers for both of those books, you instead go and read the books themselves. You will like them, I promise.***
Gemma Doyle, at the end of Rebel Angels, bound the magic of the realms to herself, promising to share it with the tribes. Now, she must contend with the creatures of the Winterlands, the plotting of the Order and the Rakshana, the discontent of those who live in the Realms, and her feelings for a certain extremely hot Indian guy.****
Gemma must figure out who to trust and what to do, all while keeping up the pretense of a nomal, stifled, Victorian-schoolgirl life.
She does, of course, have friends to help her along-- sort of. Felicity is as scathing and power-hungry as always, and Ann wilts, if possible, even more than before-- though she does have breif moments of confidence and even triumph. Pippa is... not really Pippa anymore, though you'll have to read the book to find out what happens on that front. Kartik, is a friend, perhaps more than a friend, but again, you'll have to read the book. Libba Bray has said that there is Kartik/Gemma action, and there most definitley is.*****
The Sweet Far Thing is beautifully written, and, though it is over 800 pages long, manages not to drag on in the least. The ending, is, I thing, fitting-- but don't worry, I won't tell you what it is.
I award The Sweet Far Thing with four and one-half daggers.

*A name which, in my opinion, is entirly unfitting for the trilogy. The Gemma Doyle Trilogy? Yawn. Unfortunately, no one consulted me when they made this decision, so what can I do?

**The chances that she will ever read this are, of course, exceedingly slim. Ah, well. Such is life.

***And if you don't, YOU SHALL FEEL THE WRATH OF MY SPORK OF DOOM!!!

****Need I say it? MINE.

*****Insert evil cackle here.

Cackling, shivering, wishing Kartik were real, and yours,

Aislinn Ai

PS This is the best YA cover of 2007, in my opinion. Possibly the best title. What do you think?

Valiant by Holly Black

2008-06-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

Valiant, Holly Black's second book of the "modern faerie tale" variety, tells the story of a girl named Val, who is thrust into a cruel situation that leads to her running away from home. She shaves her head and goes to New York City. It is there that she meets a group of eccentric street kids. All is not as it appears, however, and soon Val finds herself in the midst of a twisted world in which her new friends are strung out on faerie medicine, which allows them to use glamour*. But that's just the beginning. There's also a sword of glass, an awesome troll, some romance, and--of course--a bad guy.

Holly Black weaves the world of the fey and human with a strange and beautiful ferocity that is unique and wonderful. She combines an unflinchingly honest view of today's world with the magic of the faerie courts. When I began reading Black's "modern faerie tales", I had a bit of trouble getting into them. Make no mistake, they're very well written....I was just so unused to seeing the fey in a (modern) world so harsh. If you--like me--tend to enjoy reading romanticised faerie stories (You know what I'm talking about. Those ones. They usually involve many awesome ball gowns...or are set in Ireland...etc.), give the books a chance. They're well worth it.

I award Valiant four and a half out of five daggers.
Child of Faerie, Child of Earth...
Avery Trelaine

Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson

2008-06-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson is about-- who would have guessed?-- a girl at sea.
Clio Ford is a 17-year-old girl with a most fabulous tattoo and, she thinks, a most fabulous summer plan. But then Things Go Terribly Wrong. Her mother, an artist (Clio is an artist as well) gets a fellowship for the summer that causes her to move to Kansas. Clio has to give up her summer job at the art store with the Cute Boy and spend the summer with her father on a yacht in Italy. Oh, the horror.
Yacht = good, right? Clio doesn't think so. Bad relationship with father + no Cute Boy + no art store = lots of teen angst. But it's all good fun. And anyway, there's another Cute Boy, and he's much more awesome.
Anyhow, there's an ancient archeological mystery, some jellyfish, and much snarkyness. Read it. Don't let the cover fool you-- it's good.*
Oh and Aiden (that's the Cute Boy-- the one on the boat, I mean, not the one from the art store) is most wonderful. And he has great hair.
I bestow upon this book 3.5 daggers, because it is enjoyable and very entertaining, not to mention well written... but it's fairly frivolous. I mean, it's not a great work of liturature, but who wants to read nothing but great works of literature?** But, I mean, it's good, but it's, er...

Okay. I'll say it.

It's a girly book.

You got a problem with that?

Laughing at headless girls, reading girly books, fearing jellyfish, and yours,

Aislinn Ai

*For some reason, two other books by Maureen Johnson have covers with girls who only have half of a head. Disturbing.

** Okay, so quite a few people, but my point is NOT ME.

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

2008-06-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

The fourth book in the Uglies 'trilogy', Extras, takes place in post-'mind-rain' Japan a couple of years after Tally Youngblood destroyed the Pretties system. Japan, along with the rest of the world, is adapting to the freedom of thought that people had so long been deprived of. New cultural norms have emerged, and Japan's 'reputation economy' is one of these. It ties wealth and fame together at a whole new level, making most everybody want fame more than anything else.
Enter fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse, who's just as desirous of fame as the next person. She's a kicker, and always has Moggle (her hovercam) by her side. She is constantly searching for a great story to kick, one that might take her out of panic-making obscurity. One that might make her famous. But with a face rank of 451,369 (out of a million), there is little chance of that happening. That is, until she stumbles upon the story of a lifetime. But she gets more than she bargained for when she kicks it, and fame ends up being difficult. And, in her case, dangerous.

For an Uglies/Pretties/Specials fan such as myself, it was awesome to return to Westerfeld's creepy future earth. I couldn't help but notice that the reputation economy makes a lot sense. Which is creepy. We're already fame obsessed enough as it is.
Extras is really quite a wonderful book. It was well tied-in with the three preceding books, but has enough new developments so as not to be repetitive. Aya is a great character. She's endearing but imperfect. And sometimes you get really mad at her.
Which means, of course, that Westerfeld has done his job very well.

Five daggers out of five.
Wanting to mag-lev surf*...
Avery Trelaine

*What is mag-lev surfing, you ask? I don't think I'll tell you. Read the book.

_________________________________________________________

An economy based on fame.* Creepy people with too many joints. Japan. People who surge themselves to look like manga characters. Tally Youngblood. Hoverboards.
Dude, Extras is awesome.
And, as many of you probably know (on account of the link from his blog), we saw Scott Westerfeld talk/sign books... it was pretty darn cool, yo. Justine Larbalestier was also there (author of the Magic or Madness trilogy), which was also pretty darn cool, yo.

So... five out of five. Yep.

*Which would possibly work better than our current economy. I mean, it's creepy, but it would totally work.

Hoverboarding, kicking, mag-lev-riding, fame-seeking,

Aislinn Ai

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2008-06-26T15:22:00.001-07:00

Originally, we were going to refrain from reviewing Harry Potter the Seventh. But then we began to feel so very, very left out. So here it goes: Harry Potter is a character that many of us have grown up with. We wanted his final story to end spectacularly. Alas, it was not to be. I suppose that Rowling, being richer than the queen and knowing that her legions of loyal readers would buy the book no matter what, decided that she could cop out on the final volume. This is incredibly sad. I wanted to like the book. Truly I did. But somehow, it didn't work.
I was actually racing with one of my cousins (of the non-evil sort) to finish the book (I won, of course), so I didn't realise how disappointed I was until I gave it some thought. And there it was, the awful truth: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a creature of deathly boredom.
And OH! The epilogue. Of all the things that could have gone wrong, this was the worst. How could she make everything so...perfect? I shall refrain from saying anything more on the subject, for fear of being hunted down and butchered by a vengeful not-yet-finished reader.
Despite the fact that this Deathly Boredom was so...well, deathly, I feel that I must give it no less than three out of five daggers. Just because I grew up with the series. And the first three books were totally made of awesome.

--Avery Trelaine

I'm going to do this by character, because... because because.

Harry-- Our dear main character was as much of an annoying angst-ridden idiot as always. Only this time, he was an annoying, angst-ridden idiot who was also Jesus. And has anyone else noticed that he's not that good at magic? No, seriously. I mean, who in their right mind would make him head of the auror department? (This is what he goes on to do-- JKR said so.) I was so depressed that he didn't die.

Ron-- Went from being kind of a pathetic loser to being entirely a pathetic loser.

Hermione-- Lost all her awesome. No, really. She went from being all "Get out of my way or I'll turn you into a moose" to "Oh, Ron, you're soooo clever! And also, I'm suddenly not nearly as competent a witch as I used to be!"

Ginny-- If Harry Potter dumped me 'for my safety,' I would most certainly not just sit around and wait for him to come back to me. Then again, I wouldn't date Harry Potter in the first place. Also, JKR tells us that Ginny became a professional Quiddich player, but then left her job when she married Harry. No, Ginny! No! Don't let patriarcial society keep you down! BREAK THE GLASS CEILING!!

Malfoy-- Most certainly did not live up to his potential. He could have been so awesome, but instead, he was just a whiney, incompetent loser. I would also like to take this opportunity to note that if Draco had, in fact, fufilled his potential for awesome, he and Ginny would have made a great couple. (Hey, don't look at me like that. It's true.)

Dumbledore-- The Headmaster was dead, yes. But he was in the book more than any other, except perhaps the sixth. I think JKR simply couldn't fathom writing a Harry Potter book without Dumbledore.

THE DEATHSTICK-- Yes, it's a wand, but it really deserves its own character listing. It had so much personality. And also, it's called the deathstick. And Voldy always said "Deathstick" last, like: "It is mine! The Elder Wand! The Wand Of Destiny! THE DEATHSTICK!!!"*. At which point I always burst into a fit of hysterical laughter (no matter how serious the situation was supposed to be).

*This is not an actual quote from Deathly Hallows. But it's pretty darn close.

Dissapointedly, cynically, thanking-God-it's-over,

Aislinn Ai

Note: We know that this post is seeming to be spreading the HP hate. But really, we love it as much as all you crazy fangirls. Okay, maybe not quite as much. As in, we don't write any Dramione fanfiction. Or any fanfiction, for that matter.
But still. We love Harry Potter. We just hide it really, really well.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

2008-06-26T15:17:00.000-07:00

Looking for Alaska is John Green's first book (his second, An Abundance of Katherines, shall be reviewed forthwith). Looking for Alaska is a rather heartbreaking story. There is, of course, a boy and a girl, but there's also a boarding school and some alcohol and a suitcase labeled "COFFEE TABLE" and many last words. Miles Halter (the boy) goes to boarding school and meets Alaska (the girl) and a bunch of cool stuff happens, none of which I will tell you about, because I'm cruel. Then a Bad Thing happens, also which I will not tell you about.
Looking for Alaska is divided into two parts-- before and after-- and the chapters are named accordingly (a month before, two days before, etc). This gives the whole book a sense of inevitability. There is a Bad Thing that is about to happen, and you can see it coming, but there is nothing whatsoever that you can do about it. Of course, there is never anything that you can do to stop something that happens in a book, unless you are the author of the book, or you have magical powers, but Looking for Alaska really drives the point home. The entire first 3/4 of the book is just building up to the Bad Thing, just waiting for it to happen. And then, BAM. Bad Thing. And it hurts your soul, believe me.
Now, look at the picture of the cover. Do you see the shiny round gold thing? Yes? Good. That, dear reader, is a Printz award, which, if you don't know, is a very fancy sort of an award. Looking for Alaska won a Printz (a fact that you may have surmised from the aforementioned shiny round gold thing). Why did it win a Printz, you ask? Silly reader! I say. Because it is good! Now go, go out into the wonderful land of books and read it. I command you!

I award this book 4.5 daggers.*

Depressedly, Bad-Thing-hatingly yours,

Aislinn Ai

*I should probably give it five, but there's too much drinking. Is that a legitimate reason to take away a half a dagger? Eh. Teenage drinking is annoying.
__________________________________________________________

Despite all of the teen drinking and sex and smoking, I absolutely adore this book. It is a beautiful story of love and loss and suffering. And it made me cry. It absolutely ripped my heart out. And one must love a book that can do that.
The inevitability of the Bad Thing really hits you, though.
Hits you hard.

I give it the only set of daggers that I am able: all five.

Hoping for good last words... Avery Trelaine

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

2008-06-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

Wicked Lovely is the story of a girl who can see faeries. Not shiny, happy, sparkly, petal-wearing fairies—scary ones. Thus the spelling: fairy = Tinkerbell, faery = awesome. And of course, by awesome I mean, you know. Frightening.

Aislinn (That’s the girl’s name. Coincidentally, it is also my name. It’s pronounced Ash-lin, not Ah-is-lin, or Ay-es-lin, or Bill, or however one chooses to butcher it.) catches the eye of a faery named Keenan, who turns out to be something called the Summer King. This makes him an important person (or faerie). He’s also kind of a jerk. Keenan has been searching for a bride for nine centuries (faeries are immortal, if you were wondering) and thinks that Aislinn may be the one. I won’t go into all the details, but, basically, Aislinn is given a choice: become a Summer Girl (one of many simpering idiots who die if they go too far from Keenan), or take a test. Obviously, I’m not talking about a math test. It’s a magical test. You know, like slaying a dragon or pulling a sword out of a stone (though slaying a dragon is more about brute strength and/or battle prowess). If Aislinn passes, she becomes the Summer Queen, Keenan’s bride (also, a curse gets broken and some other stuff happens, but I won’t go into that). If she fails, she becomes the Winter Girl, forced to endure constant cold and bound to serve the Winter Queen (who is evil, of course). And no, I’m not going to tell you what the test is. You’ll have to read the book. It isn’t slaying a dragon, though.

Anyhow, while all this is going on, Aislinn is getting into a romantic entanglement with a boy named Seth. Unlike Keenan, Seth is wonderful. He is also mine—sorry, Avery dear. Seth lives in a train car. And has tattoos. And a snake. Also, he’s hot. And did I mention mine?

Wicked Lovely is Melissa Marr’s first novel, and she had better write more now, because it is most absolutely utterly wonderful fantabulous. It starts out a little slow, with a scene that is supposed to introduce you to the concept of faeries and the fact that Aislinn can see them. But Aislinn’s fear at seeing them seems a bit forced—she’s been seeing them all her life, and you’d figure she’d be used to it. The book recovers quickly, though, and has very few weak moments after that. There were some times when I wanted to scream at the characters because they were making bad decisions and don’t be stupid and ack don’t do that you idiot because can’t you see that other thing? But I’m not sure that this is bad. I scream at characters a lot, see.

I give this book 4.5 daggers out of 5.
Sincerely, book-reviewingly, Seth-kidnappingly, faery-lovingly yours,
Aislinn Ai

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Faeries have been a part of my life (self? soul?) since I was very, very young. Because of this, I just happen to have an affinity for books about them. Often, I will be excited about a book on the subject of faeries, only to be monumentally disappointed. Fortunately, however, this was not so with Melissa Marr's 'Wicked Lovely'.

The book, as Aislinn (Nyx, not the main character) stated, began shakily with an awkward "I see fairies" scene. It recovered quickly, plunging the reader into an epic clash between winter and summer, love and obligation, mortal and faery. You know... everything that my daily life would be if it weren't... normal.

One thing that I really loved about this book was its love story. The high ranking fae creature verses the best friend is a common love conflict/scenario, popular among many fantasy writers. The great thing about Wicked Lovely is that Marr took a common theme and made it original and complex. And entirely awesome.

(And actually, Aislinn darling, Seth is not yours. He may not be mine, but if I cannot have him, neither can you. So there.)

All in all, Wicked Lovely was, well... lovely.

I pierce the icy heart of the Winter Queen with four and a half daggers.
Fae at heart...
Avery Trelaine

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

2008-06-26T15:11:00.001-07:00

I adored Stardust. Neil Gaiman is masterful in his storytelling and the world that he created in this book was simply marvellous. Somehow, he managed to make the entire book heartbreaking within the very last paragraph.
Genius, really.

I give the book five daggers (of five) worthy of cutting out the heart of a star.

Read on....Avery Trelaine

Oh my! Total consensus! Whatever shall we do?

I think that this unprecedented event comes on account of the fact that Stardust is indisputably, fantastically amazing. To take a cue from the Uglies trilogy, it is happy-making.
Stardust managed to make me extraordinarily happy and then completely rip my heart out. How, you ask? Do not ask. Read.
Also, I need to see the movie. I'm told that there's a cross-dressing Robert De Niro.

Five of five, but of course.

Happily, sadly, starrily, wonderingly, agreeingly yours,

Aislinn Ai

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld

2008-06-26T15:09:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong...I love Scott Westerfeld. The Uglies/Pretties/Specials series was absolutely bloody brilliant. That being said, I found myself highly disappointed in SO YESTERDAY. Sure, the book was entertaining...but there wasn't much else to it. Nothing in the book really stirred me. I didn't care if the characters succeeded...hell, I didn't really care if they died. Somehow, neither the story or the main characters captured my imagination or interest in any significant way.

All in all, I felt that somewhere along the line Westerfeld lost the power of the message he was trying to convey. I already knew that we teenagers are brainwashed by the corporations and brand names every single day. No great epiphany was spawned during the reading of this book.

I give this book three daggers of the available five.

Brutally Honest... Avery Trelaine

Not Like You by Deborah Davis

2008-06-26T15:05:00.000-07:00

I must admit, when I first started reading 'Not Like You' by Deborah Davis, I was a little worried. I didn't want to read another bloody story where a girl within my relative age group has too much sex. But there it was: "Two-and-a-Half-Minute Hal" ( a dreadful bloke) was sleeping with Kayla, our beloved heroine. Within the first two pages. So yeah, I hesitated. But I read on. I wanted to know what was going to happen between Kayla and her alcoholic-on-the-mend-but-not-really mother, Marilyn. Despite my initial misgivings, I found myself sucked into the story. I was angry at Marilyn when she got drunk, happy when Kayla found friends in her new town, and disappointed in her when she made stupid mistakes (which happened fairly often).

Kayla struggled with her age quite a bit. At only fifteen, she had had to take care of her mother constantly and deal with their frequent moves (the most recent of which was to New Mexico at the beginning of the book) and was very mature for her age. With that idea of her own maturity, she began a relationship with Remy, a musician nine, years her senior. She found herself trapped between adolescence and adulthood as their relationship progressed. Confused by her feelings for him and his for her, she made some big mistakes.

'Not Like You' is an honest, heartfelt, well told story of a teenage girl struggling to find a place for herself in an unsteady new life. Despite being a bit iffy in places, the book was enjoyable and I was entirely satisfied with the ending. I bestow upon this book the rank of three and a half daggers (out of five).

Until next time......Avery Trelaine